Subjugators of the Flesh: Rise of Legion
by Kildiazar the Unwanted Ghost
Summary: What if Ariel and Nupraptor had a child? A silent watcher to all that transpired in Nosgoth? But she has watched long enough. Now is her time to act. Tutored by the Necromancer Mortanius and exploited by Moebius, her mission is to silence Kain for good.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Here is a newly added prologue. Also, the usual disclaimer applies. Lastly, with dialogues, I shall no longer stay entirely truthful to the games. This time, I improvise.

**Prologue: **Thine is the Kingdom

The Vampire Kain stood by the Pillars of Nosgoth, ready to make the monumental decision that would either condemn or redeem the already poisoned land. He beheld the Pillar of Balance and saw that it was blackened as ash and darker than his undead heart yet still it remained unbroken. Still it stood, hopelessly waiting for that final chance to be restored to its immaculate state before Nupraptor's Madness occurred.

It seemed to Kain that all eyes were on him now. Even the mighty Pillars towering to the heavens appeared to gaze down on the accursed Vampire. Two choices: To die and purify the final and most crucial Pillar or to continue this macabre existence of living death and ultimately sentence the land of Nosgoth to irreversible decay and corruption. Two choices; simple as that. But then again, choices were never simple to begin with.

After what seemed like an eternity, Kain looked up at Ariel to speak his verdict. "I have made my decision, Spirit."

"I do hope you understand the repercussions of whatever fate you decide. Have you thought about it well?"

"Indeed I have." Kain tightened his claws on the Reaver Blade. The apprehension was overwhelming.

"Do you wish to save Nosgoth?

"Save it?" He asked aloud and laughed as the madman he truly was. Why would a demented creature of the night have even the slightest desire to save the land when it could all be his for the taking? "Save this contemptible and unworthy realm?" He asked again out of sheer spite. "Nay, Spirit! I wish to rule it!"

"No!" Ariel gasped helplessly. She put her hand to her mouth and backed away horrified at Kain's final decision. After all that had transpired, the slaying of all her fellow guardians, the re-shuffling of events, the conspiracy of Moebius and Mortanius, everything had gone to naught.

Already the Pillar of Balance began to crack and erode as though time and the elements had worn away its very foundations. Chunks of rock and marble fell from the corrupted edifice. It was swaying this way and that, making warped creaking noises, uncertain of where most of it would collapse.

But before it fell, a challenge appeared.

Out of nowhere, a womanly figure materialized. She had the unblemished face of Ariel and the madness of Nupraptor in her eyes. She was garbed in clothing similar to that of Mortanius with one major distinction. Atop her head, instead of a Death's Head Mask, she wore an ornate black and white butterfly mask. It had been pulled up to show Kain her face, to show him that she harbored no fear. But her most noteworthy assets were the weapons she possessed. Twin Cryse blades with serpentine undulations not unlike that of the Soul Reaver. It was probably looted from Vorador's mansion upon the ancient Vampire's demise. They were mere butter knives in comparison to the Reaver Blade. But still, if they were of Vorador's craftsmanship, they would not be that easy to break.

"If you do not choose death, Vampire, then I shall make the choice for you." She pointed the sword in her right hand at Kain. A fight to the death was what she wanted. Death was what she would receive.

"And who are you to decide my fate, creature?" Kain sneered. What being in all Nosgoth would now have the audacity to challenge him? This meager skirmish would be over before it even started.

"I am Eidolon, Daughter of Ariel and Nupraptor and a mere Pet of the Circle. I am the Dog they have chained for too long. With Mortanius out of the way, no one has a hold on me any longer. Now that my masters are dead, I hunger for fresh meat."

"Even the most rabid of dogs may be gentled if you know the right method."

"Don't underestimate me, Vampire. I had a hand in Vorador's demise. These trinkets you see are merely my reward for doing my duty." She said, motioning to her swords.

"And let me guess. You are here now because you seek vengeance on behalf of the Circle. Am I correct?"

"Nothing so noble. In fact, I should thank you for relieving me of my captors."

"This is a most peculiar manner of expressing your gratitude. Do you think not?"

"You see, Kain, there is only one way to end this. As the daughter of Ariel, I hold but a strand of influence over the Pillar of Balance. I am no Guardian of the Circle but I am the only reason it still stands."

"Then you shall be joining your Mother soon enough."

"Good. Perhaps I shall grace her with my presence for the rest of eternity in her prison here."

At this, Ariel spoke up. "I shall have none of this, Child. You have your Father's taint of madness in you."

Eidolon turned to Ariel with a snide look on her face. "Then I guess the apple never falls far from the tree, now does it? Don't try to argue, Mother. I know you want him dead." She then turned back to Kain, knowing full well that it was dangerous to keep one's eyes off the enemy. "Are we so different, Kain? We are both afflicted by this dementia. We both want each other dead and should either one of us live through this battle, then all Nosgoth is doomed."

"What are you saying, whelp?"

"Should you kill me, the Pillars fall and by now I trust you know of its calculated repercussions. However, should I kill you, all Nosgoth shall be mine."

With this said, Kain perceived a change in Eidolon's face. There was something about her eyes. Yes, an intense green flame burned within them. He did not know what this foreboded. But whatever it was, he would not allow this insolent creature to take what was rightfully his.

Eidolon pulled her butterfly mask down to commence the duel. They began to circle each other, eyes locked on each other. Their form was perfect; their stances flawless. Both opponents held their weapons at the ready should either one of them attack first.

Due to pent up rage, Kain lunged at Eidolon before she had the chance to deal an opening strike. This she dodged effortlessly. Kain struck at her again with the intention of pushing her on the defensive side. To a certain degree, he seemed to succeed. Eidolon did not lay a single blow on him. However, it was not because she could not, but because she refused to do so. She avoided and parried his blows with bewildering ease. Not even once did she miss her step.

To Kain, it did not even seem as though she were fighting with him. The fashion of her movements, her grace and her agility hinted at something far more aesthetic. She twirled the swords in her hands and performed a parasol gesture. The blades sang through the air with great as though they moved of their own volition, carrying their wielder along with them. To Kain, it seemed as though she was merely dancing.

True, she had not dealt Kain a single blow. But neither could he land the slightest laceration on her delicate flesh. Twist and stab, thrust and parry; it was all a complicated but perfectly executed ballet.

Was she tiring him out to win the battle? Was that her strategy? Perhaps, he too should adapt a new strategy. He backed away cautiously, the Reaver still pointed at his opponent. Calmly, he pointed the blade to the ground and closed his eyes. He would let her strike him for once. He only hoped she was foolish enough to take the bait.

He opened his other senses and visualized where his attacker would land. Kain sensed her leap through the air and just when she was about to lop off his head, he turned the Reaver back up into the air perfectly catching his assailant. The clang of her swords on the floor was enough to confirm this.

Kain opened his eyes to see that she had been skewered through, as he had expected. Her weakness it seemed was that she did not appear to deviate from her attack patterns, making her far too predictable. Also she viewed this duel as a mere game, a playful sparring match, a dance. But then again, Kain had this odd feeling at the back of his mind that she came here to die and that she threw herself upon the Soul Reaver on purpose. He felt as though this was simply a small part of some grand underlying scheme. Though, the plot had yet to mature.

He allowed her body to simply slide off the blade when he inexplicably noticed her blood. It was not crimson, as he so often expected from a human. It was not green, venomous as the flame in her eyes. Not the black of his heart, with its weakening properties. Nor was it blue, infused with magic. No. It was the color of silver, blood unlike that of any creature he had ever seen before. There was no telling what the effects of this blood would do to his system. He also had no desire of trying; it was too suspicious. That might have been what she wanted him to do this entire time. Neither did he have the opportunity to do so. Her blood seeped out and was absorbed completely by the marble flooring, leaving neither trace nor stain.

Kain looked down at the near corpse. She was not yet entirely dead, still clinging to what little life that remained, such were necromancers. They studied death and death they became. What were once flames in her eyes were mere smoldering embers now, soon to be extinguished.

With her dying breath, she spoke in a barely audible voice. But due to Kain's vampiric hearing, he heard her every last word. "This is not my end, Vampire. Nor is it yours. For thine is the Kingdom," she gasped. "And the power… and the glory…"

"Now and forever. Amen." Kain continued what she was unable to say. The poor wench had expired before finishing.

Upon her death, something strange occurred. Her body began to glow with a fiery white light, swords and mask aflame. She transformed into a santelmo of pure energy. This raw power split into 9 distinct streams, attaching themselves to the 9 Pillars at the same time. As the torrents of energy struck the Pillars, they crumbled into decay, like a house made of cards with one of them forcefully plucked out.

And thus the Pillars were no more. Ariel was perpetually fettered to the tombstones of Nosgoth. And what became of her child, Kain never knew. At last Nosgoth was his to conquer.

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**Chapter 1: **The Dream

It was the dead of night and a young fifteen year old girl was running away from 3 bloodthirsty vampires. Val had trusted them to be her friends. She had trusted them with her secret, that she was a Shadow Wolf, a very rare breed of werewolf. She hated vampires more than anything. And now there they were. Her closest friends were baring their fangs as they came closer.

She hated vampires for what they were: maniacal, bloodthirsty killers without the slightest trace of humanity left in them. They had tried to kill her so many times, tried to drink her blood, so much she had already lost count. And in those countless thousands of times, none of them had ever succeeded. She never killed the vampires though, simply evading their grasp every single time. She could sense when a vampire was near. Her Wolf blood gave her a very acute sense of smell. She was used to it by now. She never went anywhere without her trusty Hydro Hyper Blaster 9000 full of holy water and two spare refills in her blue Illustrazio backpack, which often carried items such as a satchel of garlic, a medium-sized silver crucifix, a small dagger, a lighter, a sling shot, a bottle of tear gas or pepper spray and other such objects.

Now however, she did not have her backpack or her water gun. She could not find anything to stop or repel the vampires that were heading her way. The vampires were not even running after her. They were walking at a leisurely state, taking all the time in the world, while Val was running pell-mell in the opposite direction in a state of imminent panic.

She changed into her Wolf form hoping to outrun them, but it was no use. No matter how fast she ran they were still coming closer.

"Yrouna! Jack! Kim! Snap out of it! It's me for goodness sake!" cried Val. "I thought you were my friends! I trusted you guys!"

_Can't believe I was so blind. Can't believe they'd turn on me. Can't believe they'd do this to me. Can't believe ANYTHING! _Her thoughts were racing in her mind faster than she could comprehend them. _They were vampires all along. Vampires for heaven's sake! I hate vampires! They've turned my friends against me._

She ran for what seemed like miles without stopping. At last, she had slackened her pace. She couldn't keep it up forever. She collapsed on the ground and let exhaustion overwhelm her. She looked up and saw a few feet from her another figure. Her senses told her it was also a vampire and the figure's claws and fangs confirmed that. Upon this new vampire's back was a set of elegant bat wings.

"Blasted killer vampires!" she said to herself in utter disgust.

Suddenly, the new Vampire was swallowed in the darkness. Val didn't know what happened to him but she could hear deafening howls of agony and excruciating pain.

Val was suddenly overcome by her sadistically morbid nature and had to stop herself from saying something like "Cooooooooolll!" because she knew this was not the time and place for that sort of stuff. It was true she never killed any vampires but that didn't mean she didn't torture them.

The new Vampire suddenly reappeared, hideously deformed and skinless. His magnificent wings were ripped to shreds and he didn't have a lower jaw. This sight, in any other situation, probably would have left Val rolling on the ground, laughing her head off. Now though, she merely let out a suppressed chuckle. What she was wondering about however was how could this vampire still stand up when it was clearly missing several major organs and why was it now entirely blue?

Val was not the least bit disturbed by this image. In fact she gazed upon the vampire with the sinister fascination of a naughty child watching a butterfly come out of its cocoon only to become lunch for a hungry frog. Once again she strained not to say something like "Interesting" with the tone of someone watching the hungry frog dissected and the poor partially digested butterfly taken out. She had other things to worry about right now.

The blue vampire "thing" or whatever it was took a brown piece of cloth hanging from is shoulder and wrapped it around its neck to hide its face. Then as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished, again.

By now Jack, Kim and Yrouna had already caught up with her. In one final desperate attempt to save her life, she called upon her powers to repel them. Nothing. Her outstretched hands gave not the desired effect. Her glare; perhaps her evil eyes could stop them, albeit momentarily. There was always something about her eyes that agitated Vampires and at the same time harmed them. She looked directly into the windows of her attackers souls. _Did they even have souls? _Again nothing happened. Why were her powers failing her?

She knew it was pointless to run away again. She was simply too tired. She was going to be bitten. She knew it.

She waited for the burning sensation to hit her neck. She waited and waited and waited and when she didn't feel it, she opened her eyes and suddenly…

BAM!! It hit her. She bolted upright only to find herself in her own bed back at home. And there it was: the tingling burning sensation on the right side of her neck. Instinctively, she put her right hand to her neck only to find…nothing.

It had all been just a dream… or nightmare. Or was it **really** just a dream?

A/N: Should you find any errors or loopholes, please tell me.

Shortie: In a completely unrelated incident, Vorador begins to put down several of the Circle's hapless Guardians.

Guardian # 1: Malek!!

Malek: I'm coming!

Guardian #2: MALEK!!

Malek: I'm coming!

Guardian # 3: MALEEEEEEEEEEEK!!

Malek: Oh wait, I have to go use the bathroom. Where's the nearest bathroom?

Random Sarafan Warrior: What's a bathroom?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own so many things in this chapter and there are so many of them that it would be boring to list them all down and you probably wouldn't even want to read it. (My God! The Hell! You're actually reading this 00)

A/N: Anything written in italics is a thought of a character. Also, my chapters are going to be more serious now.

WARNING: This is a rather long chapter and due to its apparent lack of LOK-ness, I will not blame you if you do not wish to read it. However, if you do have the time and the patience, please do so. It will be greatly appreciated.

**Chapter 2: **Into Nosgoth

It was already morning and Val couldn't stop thinking of her dream. Could it be possible that her friends really were vampires? She knew she would have at least found out by now. They had been friends for many years now. It couldn't be possible. She thought it was just best to ask Ella what her dream meant.

Val stared at her reflection in her bedroom mirror. She examined her neck thoroughly just to be extra sure that it had all been just a dream. There was not a single mark on it. It looked perfectly fine.

Val had long, dark, black hair that covered the entire right side of her face. The reason for this was because around her right eye there were some pretty nasty, fatal-looking scars. It was as though someone or something with a very big mouth full of very sharp teeth tried to bite her eye out but did not do it entirely. Val took off her trademark leather gloves, which she always wore and ran her right hand through these scars, wincing from the pain of the memory of how she got them. She had amazing healing powers but no matter what she did she could not take away this particular scar. Not that she wanted to, of course. In the eyes of a Shadow Wolf, scars were a sign of strength and beauty. Unfortunately, not all shared that philosophy.

She hid her scar for that reason for she found it quite irritating and rude for people to gawk at her face. So long ago, she tired of those incessant comments such as "Where'd you get that?" and "Oh you poor creature." She didn't want anyone to pity her neither did she want them to think of her as a freak. She never let anyone touch her scar and she hardly let anyone even look at it; all but the Shadow Wolves.

Finally, she looked into her reflection's eyes. What was it that Vampires saw in them? Why did humans notice nothing? They never did. Her crystal blue eyes were warped with a hint of madness. But why were Vampires so afraid of her eyes?

Val decided to go back to sleep. They would probably be up all night anyway. She and her friends had been planning this for some time now. They would summon a demon to whom they would pledge their allegiance to and whenever they needed help, the demon would come to protect them. They wouldn't go so far as to sell their own souls to the demon of course.

Val was the one who needed the demon most of all. She didn't know how much longer she could hold off the vampires.

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Later that night Val met with her friends Jack, Kim and Yrouna.

Jack was a witch and so she had various magical powers including the ability to transform her self into anything she desired and had a great knowledge about anything supernatural. This enchanted, kleptomaniac, shape shifting witch often wore a cluster of raven feathers on her head to enhance her power.

Kim was a girl who could manipulate objects with her mind, see over impossibly vast distances, see ghosts, had various telekinetic powers and separate her soul from her physical body and enter the world of the dead. She could also spit toxic venom into the eyes of another person and turn into a snake. To put it simply, she was a were-snake.

That left Yrouna. She had no special powers other than being able to transform into a black cat. However, her physical abilities surpass anyone her age or even older. She was trained in various martial arts and could seriously kick butt. Obviously, she was a were-cat

Val told them all about her strange dream the other night and they responded with…

"US! VAMPIRES!!?? Are you serious Val? You know what we are," stated Yrouna.

"A Were-cat, a Were-snake and a Shifter of forms." Val dictated as though it were a creed committed to memory.

"Even if we were Vampires, we would never harm you." Kim insisted.

They debated on this topic for some time. Jack maintained an eerie silence which was only broken when she flatly said, "**I am not a Vampire, never was, never will be**." Was this a fact? Or a warning?

As they spoke, Val's mind pondered on the probability that they were indeed Vampires. However, she kept assuring herself otherwise. _They couldn't possibly be vampires. _Val thought. _They don't smell like vampires. They don't even have fangs… errr… vampire fangs I mean._ _Kim's fangs are too thin and snake-like and Yrouna wears braces. _

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Ella was, in a way, their mentor. She could interpret dreams, read minds, see into the past and the future, she could see and hear things beyond the normal range, teleport, project mental images for others to see and on rare occasions she could possess others. She was also a ghost.

Ella had taught her "students" how to close their minds from anyone who tried to read them. She said it would be dangerous if others were to see their thoughts. Ella knew there was a great possibility that there could be others who also had powers similar to hers. She also taught them how to see the energy given off by other beings. The brighter the aura, the more powerful the being was. Color had nothing to do with the strength of one's power. Ella glowed with an intense, blinding white light.

An hour later they met with Ella and Val explained her entire dream to her. Ella looked worried.

"Let's see. As far as I know, vampires in a dream mean that you have some sort of internal conflict or it could mean that you have some unresolved issues suppressed in your subconscious. Tell me, is there anything bothering you?"

"Not really"

"You lie, Child. As your mentor, I demand you tell me."

Val took a deep breath and sighed. "What is it that Vampires see in me? Am I so evil?"

Ella shook her head, averting her eyes from Val's gaze. "They see you as a threat because of what you are. They hate you because they fear what you can do to them. Not because of what you want to do. Also, they want your power. Haven't you realized that yet?"

Val was slightly insulted by her Mentor's words but said nothing of it. She knew verbal retaliation would get her nowhere. She reluctantly submitted to her Mentor's will and allowed her to probe her mind.

Ella delved deep into Val's mind. She knew a great many things about her pupil. She knew that her parents died the same night she was turned into a Shadow Wolf. She was three years old then and therefore could not remember anything of the dreadful occurrence. They died as part of the sacrifice required in her Turning but she was never informed of that. She was told that Vampires killed her parents, yet another reason to inspire her hatred for the vermin of the night. As their obedient little dog, she listened.

With the death of her parents, she was taken in by her siblings, Valentino and Veronica, not that they were the perfect surrogate parents. They practically raised her in a hospital, constantly exposing her to the infirm and the dying. Her bed was a gurney or the couches in the waiting room or anywhere she could curl up to sleep. She never tasted anything more than the bland medical provisions which served as a wretched excuse for food. She never even attended formal schooling as there was no one to fund her education. All that which she knew, she learned from the confines of this abode of healing.

This for some time became her primary purpose, to facilitate in the healing of others. She became the resident faith healer. Her siblings thought her too young and helpless to fight vampires just yet. They were well aware of the consequences. Were she to unleash her true powers without first learning to control them, she could cause very powerful and unstable bursts of energy, lashing out her power at anyone or anything in the immediate vicinity. Such was the terrible consequence of the Dark Matter.

For the time being, that did not pose as a problem for her abilities only began to manifest themselves in the healing arts. They kept her well away from vampires and any possible forms of aggression. A fluctuation in temperament would be dangerous at this age.

And thus her younger years were spent in a solitary existence in Saint Guine General Hospital. The medical staff treated her as little more than an errand girl. She had but one true friend in the world. Thomas Jason was a boy of seven, terminally ill with leukemia. Val tried to heal him with each passing day, for she knew each day could be his last. However, her skills in the healing arts had not matured enough to take on the terminally ill. She merely postponed what she feared was inevitable.

Veronica and Valentino were somehow delighted by the mere fact that she at least had someone to talk to everyday. Unfortunately, Val was oblivious to the minute detail that little Thomas was also visited daily by a vampire.

Tiberius Cain he was called by most, Nero to some and Ty to others. Tiberius was the benevolent philanthropist who first brought the dying and bloodied child to Saint Guine General and paid for all his medical bills. As generous and kind hearted as he was in the eyes of many of the hospital's patrons, he was a vampire nonetheless. That was reason enough to make him the enemy.

Val even befriended the humanitarian vampire. They would discuss the curative effects of medical starfish, electromagnetism and virgin coconut oil as though it were the weather. This was sheer insult in the eyes of her siblings. How could she not realize what he was? Veronica and Valentino, the brainwashed racists that they were, soon decided to put a stop to this. They would not have a Vampire within ten feet of their beloved sister, not while she was so susceptible. With Val's enhanced healing capabilities, who could tell if he was sneaking sips of her blood during his daily visits?

The next time Tiberius was slated to visit his ailing human companion, they barred his entrance to the infirmary. What a most foolish thing it was to do. Two meager werewolves, both barely a century old, attempting to get in the way of a Vampire nearly as old as a millennium. It made a strange death-wish, albeit an amusing one.

As he was the city's Elder Vampire, Tiberius's strength was nearly unparalleled. He casually tossed the werewolves aside without breaking his leisurely stride. But that was when they commenced open war. Without warning, a dozen other werewolves appeared from the parking lot, completely surrounding the Vampire. All of them were armed with Holy Water guns and garlic bombs. All poised to strike.

Simultaneously, the pack of werewolves threw the garlic bombs at Tiberius, effectively blinding him, choking him and burning his skin. They took this opportunity of weakness to attack. However, one as old Tiberius was not so easily defeated. His guise fell off, revealing a set of elegant black wings. With a few powerful flaps of his wings, the cloud of toxic Allium Sativum quickly dissipated.

Teeth bared and claws exposed, Tiberius became the monster they so rightly saw. One by one the werewolves fell. He did not wish to kill them but what choice did he have? If he let them be, they would only come for him again, or worse, his children. These terrorists had to be stopped. That was his reasoning at that particular moment.

Not too far, however, Val witnessed the gruesome scene. Utterly disobeying her sibling's orders, she had strayed into the side of battle. Now she knew who the monsters truly were. But still they were her siblings. They were family. Somehow she understood Tiberius' thinking. He was only doing it to protect _his_ family as well. These stupid blood feuds! No one even remembered who started them. They would remember her as the one who would attempt to bring them to a screeching halt.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Val ran headlong into the fray, crying "Stop! Stop! Don't hurt him!" No one paid any heed to the innocent eleven year-old. She was knocked face-first into the ground by a werewolf who had been trying to protect her. Overcome with furious emotion, the hinge that kept her powers at bay had snapped. The fuse had been lit by a mere spark and the following explosion would be catastrophic. The very core of her soul had been struck and she unleashed a power she could not control, a power which until that moment she never knew existed.

Massive waves of power pulsed from her body, striking all those nearby. The power of Dark Matter was too strong for her. It slithered through her veins like acid, consuming her with every passing moment. Then, blackness overcame her.

Val awoke among a throng of littered corpses. Flaming debris surrounded her. Saint Guine General Hospital was no more. In its place, stood the remains of an inferno. It had been completely razed to the ground. Dead were the patients and the medical staff, as were the werewolves. She could no longer recognize the bodies of her fallen siblings and of Tiberius, she found no trace.

In fear she ran, for she did not understand what had occurred. In all the rubble, there was no way she would have been able to find Thomas. Eventually, her weary legs led her to the pristine ebony gates of a large mansion. This was the home of the infamous Tiberius Cain. The security guard halted her but upon hearing her name and confirming with the Lord of the mansion, she was granted permission to enter.

She slowly made her way to the atrium, where thirty or more vampires awaited her. Spending her childhood cooped up in that hospital, she had never seen anything so majestic before. A large room, more than twice the size of the ER, contained a grand staircase that split on two sides. There were sculptures and paintings everywhere. Val was even hesitant to walk on the marble flooring for she was afraid her filth might sully it permanently. Only a friendly gesture from Tiberius himself willed her feet to come closer.

The other vampires gaped and gawked at her from every angle. "What was this filthy street peasant doing here?" seemed to be on all their minds.

Val was offered food, warm clothing and shelter but she kept her eyes on the floor the entire time. The only time she lifted her eyes to chance a gaze was when she heard the reluctant footsteps of one who was once so used to being pushed around in a wheelchair.

It was Thomas and he had been turned into a vampire. He walked up to her and dared to embrace her but upon touching her skin fell in a dead faint. Before she knew it, Tiberius was upon her, gazing at her face, beseeching at explanation. Tears welled in Val's eyes as she tried to look away but his clawed hands kept her face directly in front of his.

Suddenly, Tiberius suddenly felt a burning sensation creeping up on the pit of his stomach, which quickly spread to his heart and the rest of his body. He dropped down on his knees and groaned in agony. Val looked around her and saw that the other vampires were experiencing the same excruciating fate. Some of them were convulsing in fits of seizures, others were rolling on the ground screaming bloody murder, and still others were on all fours, throwing up the blood of their latest victims.

Realization dawned upon Val that she was causing all of this. She decided this would be the best time to make a break for it. She reverted into her bestial wolf form and ran as though she herself was one of the very hounds of hell.

She emerged into the sunlight mentally transformed. What madness that occurred in that mansion had taken hold of her. She now knew why her siblings wanted to keep her away from vampires. Her mere presence among any of them either harmed them or drove them mad.

Word of the incident at the mansion spread quickly throughout the vampire community. Soon entire droves of vampires were popping up at every corner just waiting to rid the city of the lupine menace.

Val was eventually taken in by a friendly were-cat under higher orders. Malthus, self-proclaimed peacemaker between the different races of Sanguine, arranged for Yrouna to take Val in and keep her away from vampire-kind. That was how she had been living ever since.

Ella released Val from her mental grip.

"Think of it no more, Child" she said in a demanding tone. "You are more powerful than any vampire known to exist in all San Guine. Whatever you fear should be of no threat. Remember that. I assure you, your powers will not fail you."

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A while later, Val, Kim, Yrouna and Jack got dressed for the demon summoning. They all wore black hooded robes atop their usual clothing. Val hid her backpack and water gun underneath her jet-black robe, just in case. And since they were going to walk to Kalach Forest in the dead of night, Val decided to sneak in a dagger or two. Jack brought out her dark book of demons. First they had to choose a demon to summon.

"Alright" she said "I'm going to read out the demons and you tell me if they're ok or not"

Everyone nodded in consent.

"Alright let's start with Abdiel, AKA: Arcade, rank: Seraphim, Abdiel was the most vindictive angel against the Rebels headed by Satan. He appears on several pentacles of the Key of Salomon and the Legemeton, other records: The Book of Raziel XIII."

"I thought we were going to summon a demon, not an angel" Kim broke out.

"Alright moving on, Abaddon, element: insects, rank: King of the cricket demons, Head of the Sixth House of Hell and Demonic Ruler of the Abyss"

"Stop" Val interrupted. "Can we at least conjure up a demon that doesn't sound so…"

"…evil?"

"Exactly!" Val replied.

"Ok then, I'll skip those that sound **evil**. But what do you expect? Grand Duke of Hell? No. Grand Chancellor of the infernal empire? No. President of Devils' general council - The eighth of the ten evil Sephiroth? No. One of the three angels of Hell? No. General of Hell? No. First Duke of Hell under the power of the East? No. Supreme God of Evil?"

"NO!" Val, Kim and Yrouna cried out in unison.

"One of the four kings of Hell? No. Eater of the Dead? No. Supreme President of Hell? No. God of quarrels? No. Grand Marquis of Hell? No. Aha! How about the Anti-Christ?"

"Are you mad?" Kim shouted.

"Just kidding! Demon of revenge? No. Spirit of lust and unfaithfulness? No. Goddess of lust and seduction? No.Demon of vanity and sloth? No. Demon of avarice and greed? No. Count and Duke of Hell? No. Lord of the dwelling? No"

"Why not?" asked Kim. "It doesn't sound that evil."

"Because he has a tendency to vomit flames when angered and he gets angry a LOT. Anyway, Demon of lust and gluttony? No. Prince of Death? No. Aha! Let's conjure Leviathan AKA: Rahab, element: water. He is the Master of the ocean. He reigned also as king of beasts, feared by God and men alike."

"Well, Jack perhaps he's a bit too powerful for our needs. Don't you think so?" Val asked her other companions meekly.

Yrouna and Kim nodded in agreement.

"As I was saying: Master of Infernal Ceremonies? No. Demon of Pestilence? Nuh-uh. Venom of God? Nada. Angel of Death? No way. Grand General of Hell? No duh. Son of the Morning? Nope. Angel of light? Not a chance.

"Why not?"

"Because Lucifer is the Angel of light."

This went on for about half an hour until…

"I've got it. The perfect demon! Gamin, element: darkness. He is a mischievously energetic, clever and self-willed being. He is the commander of the legions of the Undead and the Creatures of the Night." Jack looked up from the book. "That means he has absolute authority over vampires and were-creatures _**and other races**_. However, he was trapped in the very bowels of the earth as a punishment for his impertinence and knack for meddling with human affairs. He is very demanding when summoned."

"But doesn't he sound evil?" Val declared.

"Well he's our best bet among the demons in this book and besides this **is** a book of demons. What would you expect?"

"Alright, you're the expert"

Four figures in dark hooded robes went outside and made their way to Kalach Forest in the dead of night. Yrouna took her Arnis sticks with her just in case the vampires tried to intervene. Jack was holding her book and a small bundle rapped in scarlet cloth. Val was very apprehensive as they got closer to the forest. The entire time she had expected a vampire to suddenly appear out of the darkness and lunge at her throat. Miraculously, they reached Kalach with no trouble at all and they began preparing for the ritual. They made a large triangle inside an even larger circle. They etched in numerous arcane marks on the ground. They were surrounded by candles they had put there previously. Jack unwrapped the bundle and distributed its contents to her friends. Each one got a stone of a different element.

Val asked how Jack came into the possession of the stones. She nonchalantly replied that she had stolen them from the Shifter's Cult as payment for kidnapping her. Finally, when it was midnight, they went to their respective places. Jack went to the top part of the triangle holding a multicolored stone. Kim and Yrouna went to the opposite sides of the triangle holding a crystal of light and a stone of darkness respectively. Val stayed at the center of the triangle holding a glass ball known as "the Conduit", which contained a core stone and several rotating discs. As the moonlight hit the Conduit, it split into three beams. The first beam was of color which hit the stone of Ice and Fire that Jack was holding. The second beam was of pure white light which hit the stone Kim was holding. The final beam was of darkness and hit the stone Yrouna was holding.

Simultaneously, they began to chant the incantation in the book:

Awaken, Demon of the deep, who forever sleeps.

Demon of the grave, without a soul to save.

Demon of the night air, foul, black, not fair.

Demon of the undead, that glides with noiseless tread.

Demon of heat and fire, destruction in your ire.

Demon of cold and ice, phantom of crime and vice.

Come, Demon so powerful, come Demon so dread.

Awaken, Lord Gamin, commander of the Undead.

Come, give us your blessing, come lend us your ear.

Oh Demon of Darkness, oh Demon so drear.

Come, mighty Demon, come great unknown.

Come from your dwelling so gloomy and lone.

Come, we beseech you, depart from your lair.

And unto you, our allegiance, we shall declare.

Demon of darkness, we seek you this night,

Awaken from your slumber, by your side, we shall fight.

Protect us from our enemies, save us from our plight,

Hear us, oh Demon of the Undead and the Night.

When they were done chanting they said in one voice: "We call upon Lord Gamin" and all the candles were extinguished as if a great wind had passed by. This was the sign that Gamin heard them.

In the darkness a figure began to take shape. It seemed humanoid with certain demonic characteristics. Gamin looked like a man in his mid-twenties with long, fiery red hair and equally red eyes. He had two horns on his head, in the middle of which was an exquisite black gem. He had very pointy ears, as a demon should. He had maroon claws for hands. He had birdlike talons for feet. He had a devilish tail, sort of like the kind one often sees in cartoons. He glowed with a vivid purple aura. To top it all off he had a pair of blood-red wings.

The wings reminded Val of Cain and of the strange vampire in her dream except that these were more than twice as large and far more beautiful.

"Who has liberated me?" Gamin roared out to the four hooded beings.

"We have liberated you, Lord Gamin. I am Valwique" Val answered in the most dignified manner. She thought that if Gamin would agree to protect her, then he should at least know her true name. "These are my friends Kimberly, Jacqueline and Yrouna. We are the ones who freed you. We pledge our allegiance to you, oh Lord. In return we would like to seek your protection from the vampires, benevolent Lord. We are your most humble servants."

"You seek my protection? I will need more than your allegiance, mortals. I require your souls."

"We agreed not to give our souls right?" Val whispered to her friends.

They all silently nodded.

"I see. You refuse to give me your souls. You are no different than the humans who first damned me to forever be imprisoned in the bowels of Hell."

"Oh dear! This does not look good," Val mumbled to herself.

And with that Gamin started to glow with bright purple energy. All of a sudden a strange light appeared and it began to draw in everything near it. Yrouna stood her ground. Jack mumbled a spell to keep her feet stuck to the ground she was standing on. Kim used her telekinetic abilities to keep her from being sucked in. However, Val was not physically strong, did not know any magic spells, nor did she have telekinetic powers and she was now helplessly being sucked into the light. She tried to revert into her bestial form but it was too late.

She heard a voice in her head saying "Bring back my love. Do not return without her." It was Gamin's voice, she was certain.

In a split second she was gone. The light exploded into a very powerful blast and Gamin disappeared. The blast knocked everyone unconscious and Val was nowhere to be seen.

A/N: Sorry if neither Raziel nor Kain were hardly mentioned in this chapter. I just wanted to give some background info on Val and introduce Tiberius but don't worry Raziel will be out in the next chapter. I swear on the Code of Wingdom and the Oath of Adunar. Oh yes and if you do try to summon Gamin and get possessed, it is entirely your fault, not mine. If you die in the process, Raziel and I shall fight over your soul while you stare at us like an idiot (only to be eaten from behind by a random sluagh).


	3. Chapter 3

  
A/N: This is a revised version of chapter 3. Hope you enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own Raziel. I only own Val and the other characters I mentioned in the previous chapter who are not present in this chapter.   
A/N: Recap of chapter 2. If you were too lazy to read the last chapter, it pretty much tells the history of Val and the reason why she is currently public enemy number 1 to all vampires. In an attempt to defend herself, she summons the Demon Gamin. However, instead of helping her, he pulls Val into a dimensional vortex which transports her to Nosgoth. He leaves her with a message telling her to return his love and not to come back without her. And without any further ado, I give you Chapter 3: Healer by day, sadist by night. 

**Chapter 3:** Healer by day, sadist by night

Val looked up from where she had fallen. She was in her full bestial form. Everything was dark but it didn't matter. She could see quite well in the dark. And in the darkness she saw a bright shining object on the ground. She moved closer to examine it and realized that it was a core stone suspended in the middle of four discs and all encased within a ball of glass. It was the Conduit. It had been sucked in along with her. She took it up and placed it inside her bag.

It was raining slightly. There was a stone wall with a picture of a man. There were also some spikes positioned on a wooden wheel-like structure. Val stared at the picture until she heard some strange noises behind her. She looked back to see five green zombie-like creatures slowly making their way towards her.

"Vampires?" Val cried out when she recognized their scent.

But the creatures didn't look like vampires. They looked like cannibalistic zombies straight from an old horror movie.

"First Vampires, now Zombies! Why does everyone want to kill me?" Val shouted as she readied her Hydro Hyper Blaster 9000, pleased that she thought of hiding it under her cloak along with her bag. However, it was quite cumbersome to be holding a water gun in her bestial form so she became human again.

Val began to shoot like mad. The water seared the scraggly green beasts. In a few seconds, the creatures began to circle one another as though on fire. They were even beginning to smolder. 

'_That's strange,'_ Val thought. _'These things seem to be more vulnerable to holy water than usual vampires. But then again, it's not like they __**are**__ the usual vampires. This could be useful. Hell! What am I saying? This will be very, very useful, indeed.'_

Before long, each and every one of those zombie-esque creatures was sprawled upon the ground… dead. An evil grin was concealed beneath the hood of Val's robe. She had never actually killed vampires before and she never thought for a moment that the thrill of victory was greater than anything else she had ever imagined. At once she was overcome by an intense sense of enlightenment and at the same time… malice, greed, avarice, revenge, hunger and blood thirst. Where were these emotions all coming from? It all seemed to happen so fast. She never meant to kill them. It was all just by accident. But she killed them nonetheless and she wanted more. More death, more despair, more cries of anguish and torment, more of everything. 

Not only that, she also wanted a prize; a booty of some sort. And what better spoil of victory was there than to rip out the fangs of a slain vampire. She vaguely remembered her siblings doing this back home, when she was still a child. However, the vampire was normally still alive. 

She confidently opened the vampire's dead mouth, knowing that should it come alive again, she was more than equipped to deal with it. Val gripped hard on the canines and yanked with all her might. They came out with no trouble at all. Val took them in her trembling hands and placed them in the side pocket of her bag. Plucking out a vampire's fangs was considered to be the most humiliating insult one could ever do to a vampire and her siblings had a large collection indeed. 

'_I should do this more often,'_ she mused. 

Intent on finding more vampires… or whatever those things were, Val hopped off the ledge and a few more till she finally reached the bottom level. As soon as her feet touched the ground she immediately sensed she was not alone. She looked around and saw a human carrying a crossbow aimed right at her chest.

"No! No! I'm not a Vampire!" she barked at the archer. "I'm not a vampire and I don't want to hurt you." Now, even humans wanted her dead. 

Unfortunately, the archer remained unconvinced. A person with that sort of jumping capability could not be human. And a mere girl, at that, wandering around Melchahim territory seemed all too suspicious. He kept the crossbow aimed at her heart, ready to shoot at any moment. Val saw the futility of her pleas but under no circumstance would she hurt this human. She couldn't blame him; it was his job. She simply immersed herself in Dark Matter and melted into shadow form as the arrow flew right through her incorporeal form and was wasted. 

Quick as darkness, Val was well away from the human. She came upon a campfire and as she drew near two more Melchahim vampires popped out of the ground. She took out of her bag a brown crudely wrapped package and tossed it at the vampires with all her might. Instantly, the vampires were enveloped in a cloud of dust and were groaning in anguish. Their skin began to blister and burn, and they were also consequently coughing up blood. In their pandemonium, they suddenly attacked each other as though in frenzy, for their eyes stung and they could not tell who the enemy was. 

Val let out an inhuman laugh but as her eyes began to glow black, she thought _'All these creatures ever do is run and scream. They don't even beg for mercy. What's the point? They're not even trying to kill me. There's no fun in torturing them. They're mindless zombie vampires, for goodness sake. How can I derive any pleasure from their pain?'_

She basically decided to end the vampire's misery by decapitation. So she took out either a long dagger or a short sword and hacked off their heads in two consecutive blows. She left the bloody corpses on the ground and continued walking. Pretty soon, she came upon a large edifice wherein the only way out was up. Val would have to revert to her bestial form and hop up the levels but she decided melting into shadow was much faster. 

Val stood before the wall and held up one hand up against the wall. She pushed against it as soon as the wall touched her hand she was once again consumed by Dark Matter. It was as if the wall swallowed her entirely for the rest of her body followed into shadow. In this form she was able to travel quickly and overcome all sorts of barriers. 

A fleeting shadow flew up the stone wall and rematerialized at the top. Val continued on passing a short hallway, past a drawbridge and into some sort of tower. There, she was greeted by a most appalling figure. Its skin was dark as charcoal while its blood red eyes burned like ember. It snapped its horrific jaws at Val.

'_Oh, not again,'_ she thought. 

The vampire lunged at Val, who quickly sidestepped it in a flash of darkness. There was no time for her to retrieve anything from her bag. Instead, she held up her right hand at the vampire and pointed with her index finger. Instantly, the vampire began screaming in anguish. It flailed its claws at the air as though its skin were burning right off. Val intensified her power and the vampire clutched its head in madness. It reeled over from side to side. It seemed it might topple over at any moment. Its unsteady legs could no longer support its weight. Val snapped her fingers and at this command, the vampire fell right off the drawbridge and plummeted head first into the stone floor. Its head cracked on impact and it was very well dead when she got to the bottom. 

This was a much stranger vampire than the less agile Melchahim. It seemed more aggressive than those zombie-esque vampires and had quicker reflexes but it was no different from every other vampire she had ever encountered. It fell to her powers as easily as the last. And now, she discovered, she felt no remorse for killing vampires. Five other Dumahim vampires followed in their demise as she passed by Raziel's clan territory. Some of them had their fangs pulled out or their bones mangled and stuck at particularly odd angles. 

Val walked into the main courtyard and noticed a dominant symbol emblazoned on the walls. Something about it struck her. Strangely enough, it seemed so familiar. Had she not seen this symbol before back in the mansion of the Vampire Lord? She cautiously neared one of the symbols and stared blankly at the strange insignia. It couldn't be just a coincidence. Tiberius Cain had something to do with this, but what? What was it that associated this place and this symbol with Tiberius Cain? She could not explain the connection. But she was desperate for an answer. She had to find out. 

A sudden snarling noise from behind attracted her attention. Two more black Dumanhim vampires seemingly appeared out pf nowhere. This was getting boring for her. These vampires were way too obvious. She nonchalantly held up both palms at the vampires and they fell to their knees in submission. These vampires were relatively weak, having no cunning at all. She pressed her hands to their foreheads and administered her most infamous of all tortures, _**the Insanity's Touch.**_

She instantly let go of the vampires and watched their demented reactions from a safe distance. One of the vampires began to chew aggressively at his arm. The other repeatedly slammed itself headfirst into the stone walls. Attracted by the commotion, another vampire came into view Val quickly jumped at it and consequently pushed it off the verge of madness as well. The vampire lost all its common sense, not that it would have had much common sense in the first place. 

The third vampire, upon seeing the other two, shied away as quickly as possible to a far off corner like a frightened animal. 

'_Pathetic,'_ she thought. 

If only her siblings could see her now. They would have been proud. This was exactly what they would have wanted her to be. 

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Still fresh from the kill, Raziel walked out of Melchiah's inner chambers. He was on his way to the Pillars. He stepped out and decided to look around and see if any more Melchahim vampires had escaped his clutches. As he surveyed the surroundings, he observed an enigmatic silence throughout the entirety of the complex. It was simply too quiet. Where had all the vampires gone? Surely, he had not wiped out all the Melchahim in one sweep of the place. There could not have been so few. Surely, there were more. But where had they all gone?

He walked on for several minutes until he came upon three Melchahim vampires huddled against a corpse. The cannibalistic creatures voraciously gorged upon one of their own kin. They paid no attention to Raziel and thus fell easy prey to him. He swiftly devoured their souls and neared the corpses which the vampires had been feeding on. Aside from being all chewed up, he could see that the corpses were still fresh and that their skin had been burned as though with acid. He silently pondered at the cause of this massacre. Had the humans developed a new weapon that could spray water with such force that it could kill a handful of vampires at a time? Or had this been the handiwork of something that was neither human nor vampire? Either way, he intended to find out.

It was not difficult to find the source of this genocide. Innumerable cadavers littered the pathways; each one seemed to have a different cause of death than the last. Raziel was completely baffled by these murders. One had its heart wrenched out. Another had its innards spilling on the cold wet ground. A random Dumahim had its tongue cut off. The only pattern Raziel could perceive was that most of them seemed to be missing their fangs. He followed the evident trail of bodies into his own former clan territory. 

Before long he came upon the catalyst of the inexplicable fatalities. She was a cloaked figure watching in morbid fascination at the most comical sight. Inexplicably, she burst into a fit of semi-maniacal laughter. This frightened the witless vampires and they scurried away in terror. Her keen sense of smell perceived Raziel's scent and caught her attention. She turned around to face Raziel as though she had been waiting for him all this time. 

Raziel tensed as he shifted into a defensive stance. Val looked at him with that sadistic glint in her eyes. An eerie silence followed as they locked glances. Val cocked her head to one side playfully and grinned as one possessed. She decided to be the first one to break the silence. 

"You!" she shouted, pointing her finger at him. "You are the one I saw in my dream, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you are talking about, demon," Raziel replied.

"Who are you calling demon, you… demon," she snapped back at him.

"You call me demon and yet you are the one responsible for all this, are you not?"

"Of course it was. Things begin to happen by accident. I am an accident and so are you." By that moment, the madness of Nosgoth had taken hold of her. It was in the air around her, in the vampires she killed and in this creature as well. She did not even realize that she locked her eyes with his and he did not even flinch. "What does it matter anyway? You are the first sentient being I have seen in this world and yet you are no different from the others. I presume you want to kill me as well?" 

"And so it shall be done." Raziel replied as he lunged at Val.

In response, Val made a few quick gestures summoning the Dark Matter around her body. Immediately, her body became coated with thick, black plasma. She willed it to encompass Raziel in its lethal grip. It quickly surrounded him but did him no harm. 

"You waste my time, creature. Now leave me be!" Raziel ominously replied as he brushed fragments of Dark Matter from his body. 

"You're not affected by my power. You're not a vampire, are you? What exactly are you?" Val said, visibly shocked.

"I have no time for your petty little questions. I have more important matters to deal with right now"

"No, you listen to me demon! I'm determined to find out my answers and if I'm going to be stuck here for some time, then I might as well ask every damn creature in this god forsaken place, beginning with you." 

"Get out of my way now or I promise your death will be slow and agonizingly painful," Raziel spoke slowly 

"Why must everyone kill me?" she sighed. 

With that Raziel lunged at her, digging his razor sharp claws into her flesh. However, at the very last second, before Raziel's claws even touched Val's skin, she turned into mist and he went right through her. Val and Raziel both spun around. Raziel once again attempted to slash at Val but to no avail. Again and again he attacked her but his claws simply went right through her. It was as if she was a ghost that was never there, insubstantial and incorporeal. It was as though Raziel was merely hallucinating and striking away at the form of nothingness. 

In the meantime, Val watched his futile actions with interest at first but quickly grew bored of it.

"It's useless, demon. I could keep this up all night" she said. "But if you're going to continue being like this, then I'll have to find my answers some other way then." 

And with that, Val simply disappeared. In truth she had turned herself into her shadow form in order not to be found out. Her shadow form had many advantages: her scent could not be perceived, her footsteps could not be heard, and she could only be seen by Raziel if she was not careful. And if Raziel did sense her presence, he would not be able to hurt her, not as a shadow at least. Stealth was her greatest strength and many times it seemed as though she merely flickered out of existence or melted into oblivion. 

Raziel suddenly shifted around looking for her as though expecting her to appear again somewhere else. But he finally realized that he was alone, supposedly. Val was closer than he expected. In truth she was standing right beneath him and yet he could not discern her. Not wanting to waste another moment, Raziel immediately continued on his way to the Sanctuary of the Clans, with Val, unknowingly, right on his tail. Curiosity compelled her to follow him. It was better than wandering around aimlessly in desolate wasteland. 

The Wraith speedily exited his former territory and made his way to the abyss. Raziel easily glided over to the cliff ledge where Kain had ordered him to be cast in. Val, on the other hand, was able to defy the laws of physics with her shadow form. She quickly followed him across the abyss and past the rickety bridge, directly to the Pillars. 

When Raziel finally reached the main entrance of the Sanctuary, he found that he could not unlock the enormous door, no matter how hard he tried. However, he fortunately remembered that there was a side entrance which could allow him passage into the Sanctuary. He walked over to the barred entrance and shifted into spectral.

Meanwhile, Val was taken by surprise as Raziel vanished in a swirling green mist. She immediately went through the bars hoping he was only on the other side. Apparently, she had underestimated Raziel for she did not expect him to suddenly vanish like that. As soon as she was on the other side, she heard a loud bang. The passageway was suddenly blocked. A large slab of rock fell from above impeding her path. 

However, as suddenly as her way was blocked, it was reopened. She quickly followed suit as Raziel went to the right of the passage ahead of him. Val caught up with him just soon enough to witness him disappear, leaving behind some green residual particles suspended in the air. Val was perplexed by this action but a voice at the back of her head had seen the pattern and told Val to hastily go through the bars and see where he went. Once again, she caught up to Raziel in time to see him open the doors of the Pillars room and enter.   
Shortie: Shooting at the Pillars   
Raziel: Kain is deified. The clans tell tales of him but few know the truth. He was mortal once, as were we all. However, his contempt for humanity drove him to create me and my brethren. I am Raziel, first born of his lieutenants. I stood with Kain and my brethren at the dawn of the empire. I have served him a millennium. Over time we became less human and more divine. Kain would enter the state of change and emerge with a new gift. Some years after the master, our evolution would follow, until I had the honor of surpassing my lord. For my transgression, I earned a new kind of reward… agony. There was only one possible outcome – my eternal damnation. I, Raziel was to suffer the fate of traitors and weaklings and burn forever in the bowels of the Lake of the Dead.   
Kain: …   
Raziel: Well?   
Kain: I forgot my line. What was it again?   
Raziel: CAST HIM IN!!   
Turel and Dumah let go of Raziel, grab Kain and haul him over the abyss instead.   



	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: The usual disclaimer applies.

**Chapter 4:** She whom the Demon loves

Raziel entered the room of the pillars and Val followed close behind but the moment both of them were inside, the doors suddenly slammed shut. Raziel spun around. Raziel slowly backed away from the door but a voice caused him to slide back and turn in the direction of the one who spoke.

"Raziel" said the voice.

"Kain" he spat in return.

"The abyss has been unkind."

For the meantime, Val decided to remain hidden behind the columns even though she was already invisible. She had a feeling if Raziel was defeated by this vampire, she would step up and have a real kick of a grand time causing all sorts of agony to this Vampire. Her desire to hear the pathetic screams of a tortured Vampire could not be controlled. Other than that, she reasoned that this particular Vampire was probably the biggest boss of them all. She had never seen an aura so bright. The atmosphere was practically vibrating with the intensity of his strength. As she stared at him, her confidence was put down a few notches. Kain was glowing with an intense, almost blinding aura. At first it was green, then red, then purple, then blue, then white and so on. The color of his aura was ever-changing. She had never seen anyone so powerful before. She would have to see for herself just how powerful he was. And with that, Val reverted into her lupine form but stayed in the shadows.

"I am _your_ creation, Kain - now, as before. You criticize your own work. What have you done with my clan, degenerate? You have no right-" Raziel began.

"What I have made, I can also destroy, child." Kain interrupted.

"Damn you, Kain!"

"You are not God! This act of genocide is unconscionable!" Raziel continued.

"Conscience...? You dare speak to me of conscience? Only when you have felt the full gravity of choice should you dare to question my judgment! Your life's span is a flicker compared to the mass of doubt and regret that I have borne since Mortanius first turned me from the light... To know that the fate of the world hangs dependent on the advisedness of my every deed -- can you even begin to conceive what action you would take, in my position?"

"I would choose integrity, Kain."

"Look around you, Raziel - see what has become of our empire. Witness the end of an age. The clans, scattered to the corners of Nosgoth... This place has outlasted its usefulness -- as have you."

Kain then unsheathed his sword, the Soul Reaver, which was now glowing with anticipation, and assumed a battle stance. Raziel took a step backward at this sight knowing full well that anyone to have ever come in contact with this deadly blade normally ended up dead. Kain then vanished and teleported to one side of the room. Raziel merely ran up to him and attacked him with his claws.

As they continued fighting, was taken by a strange overwhelming compulsion to touch the Pillar of Death. Her claws moved of their own volition. The Pillar called to her. Tentatively, she touched the Pillar with her right wolfish claw. As soon as she made contact, her claw gripped the Pillar as though it was suctioned in, her nails embedding themselves in the marble. Try as she might, she could not dislodge her claw. All of a sudden, she felt all her energy, her Dark Matter, pouring into the Pillar.

At that instant, Val's head snapped up and though the voice was hers, the words she spoke came from a completely different entity. "Necromancer, I summon you! Urzak Anadyr Mergo!" Her grip loosened as she became visible again. She fell to the marble flooring, drawing the attention of the dueling Wraith and Vampire.

"What manner of creature is this? Is it yours, Raziel?" Kain questioned the bewildered wraith.

"That is none of my doing," Raziel answered motioning at the weakened wolf.

The two halted their struggle out of curiosity. Raziel cautiously approached the prostrate Shadow Wolf. Val remained sprawled on the ground in her wolf form. She did not move. She felt so weak. All her energy had been drained clean right out of her. But she could feel it returning in little increments. Slowly she regenerated, drawing in all the nearby energy into her body. It was a slow but steady process.

Kain was having none of this. He decided to be rid of the wolf so that he could continue his battle with Raziel. He leapt up into the air intending to bring the Reaver directly on the creature's body.

Val could barely make out the blurry image of Kain in the air with the Reaver aimed at her heart. Had she seen him a second later, she would have been dead. In the nick of time, she got up and rolled out of the way at the same time focusing all that was left of her power at the Vampire.

Kain landed painfully where Val had been a split-second ago. He dropped the Reaver in agony. He felt as though his innards were bursting in flame. His entire vampiric body was assaulted by jabbing hooks and white-hot needles. His blood turned to acid and was burning his flesh right off.

Raziel was astounded. What was this creature that possessed the ability to incapacitate a power of the land? An entity of such might was no laughing matter. If she could debilitate Kain so easily, what could she do to his husk of a form? Undying he was, but not invincible.

Val let out a loud fuming snarl. Increasing the intensity of her power tenfold, she watched as the Vampire Overlord writhed on all fours like a common peasant, delirious with plague.

Kain feebly raised his right claw in the direction of the deranged Shadow Wolf. He managed to summon a pathetic excuse for a telekinetic bolt at her. The projectile made contact but did her no harm. Nonetheless, her concentration was momentarily broken. Kain only needed that split second to regain his composure. But as he did so, a new entity stood in his way.

In her hands, were the same serpentine, twin Cryse blades looted from Vorador's mansion. Her face was still covered by the same ornate butterfly mask. The same Necromancers' Cloth garbed her. She was completely unchanged by time. It appeared that after all these centuries, Eidolon, secret daughter of Ariel and Nupraptor, had returned from the dead.

"You irritating little vermin!" Kain spat at the woman. "I remember you. I thought I killed you once already."

"We Necromancers have our own ways of dealing with death. I did not merely study it. I controlled it." Eidolon replied icily, never once breaking eye contact with the Vampire Overlord. "Those who are learned in Art of Death accept it willingly. I did, as my Lord Mortanius did. The only difference is that he did not preserve himself before meeting his demise at your hands. I, however, have remained secured in the Pillars until I was summoned. Now that I have, it is time I finish what I failed to do all those years ago.

For once, she actually lunged at Kain instead of allowing him the honor of the commencing move. Their serpentine blades clashed, emanating the power that pulsed within the lethal weapons. Now this was a true fight to the death, not a mere display of acrobatics and forms of swordsmanship.

"Why do you insist on returning from where I sent you last, cretin?" Kain goaded. "I still have reason to believe you came to me practically begging for release and yet did it in the most dignified manner you could think of."

"Because," Eidolon answered "some bonds could not be broken. Or should not."

They resumed their duel, though this time it was less of a dance, far less choreographed, relying more on impulse than focus. Eidolon was more keen on slaying the Vampire Overlord this time.

As Kain busied himself with the surprisingly violent Necromancer, a bewildered pair of onlookers stared in utter disbelief. It seemed as though Kain had completely forgotten the Wraith and the Shadow Wolf even existed, currently occupied fighting an unseen attacker. He sliced the Reaver Blade through thin air, blinded by madness. His eyes were glazed over and a thin white film appeared to encompass them.

"What madness is this?" Raziel voiced his thoughts. Turning to the Shadow Wolf he asked, "What have you done to him? How--?" His words simply choked in his metaphorical mouth. In all his unlife, Raziel had never seen such a twisted spectacle. The once egotistical tyrant was now at the mercy of a mere child. What in all hell was this creature that took this seemingly harmless guise?

Though contrary to Raziel's currently accepted notions, Val was merely as perplexed as he was. She stood unmoving, trapped in her own stupor of disbelief. The few words she muttered from her reverie broke everything. "This is not my doing."

Raziel's perception of the world around him changed suddenly. Time stood still though he knew he was still in the material realm. Val was a spirit flitting in and out of oblivion and before him was titan forced to the ground by something that could possibly be more powerful and perhaps more ancient than the sublime Dark God, Himself.

"I'm not doing anything and I don't sense anyone else here," the Wolf stated. "Do you?" she added.

"No. But has he gone mad? That is my query." Raziel replied, not even realizing that he had struck a conversation with a Wolf, of all creatures. Raziel knew wolves could not speak though he didn't seem to mind at that moment. Both creatures were too stupefied by the occurring madness to think logically at this point.

The realm of Nosgoth had lost all reason. Even a Vampire Overlord battled figments of his imaginings. Desperate to free himself of this delusion, Kain employed the same method he had used all those centuries ago at the exact same spot. He shut his eyes and stood perfectly still. With his marble-like appearance, he was a statue in the eyes of his baffled audience; a statue that held a serpentine blade to the ground.

Faster than any mortal eye could see, the blade that was connected to the ground rose up into the air. Slowly, Kain opened his eyes, once again expecting the Necromancer to be skewered through by the Reaver Blade. Instead, he was met by a most unanticipated sight.

Cockroaches. Thousands of infernal filthy insects were all over him, scuttling upon his person and flying around in random directions. They crept upon the walls and the Pillars. Even the Reaver Blade was coated with these maddening pests.

It was at this moment that Kain finally lost it. He began swinging the blade aimlessly to and fro, trying to slice his way through the horde of insects. He even gouged at his arms to rid himself of the vermin. Kain was dripping with several rivulets of crimson. To say that Kain was a madman was a horrible understatement. He looked as though he wanted to demolish the entire Sanctuary of the Clans.

Val should have been cowering in fear by now but surprisingly she retained a nonchalant resolve. She reverted back to her human guise and silently took a few steps back. Raziel was as stunned as ever. His luminescent orbs of eyes tried to take in all that was happening to the Lord he once revered. He did not move to aid him. Perhaps that was what he deserved after casting his ever faithful lieutenant into the abyss.

The Shadow Wolf moved as one possessed. An ethereal voice guided her in the deed she was to do next. "I am She whom the Demon loves. You will do as I command," the voice said. Val did not question the voice. It did not force her to its will. Rather it was a gentle voice, lulling her into a false sense of security. Mesmerized by this unearthly presence, she forgot all that was all around her. In a trancelike state, she opened her blue Illustrazio backpack and took out the glass orb that was the Conduit. She held it aloft and spoke the words "Bephesda Alamimnon Sanguino Terra Firma!"

The orb began to glow as Val put it to the ground and rolled it towards the Wraith. The Conduit crackled as it came to life, emitting minuscule sparks of lightning that activated it. Raziel immediately noticed the shafts of light coming from behind his cloven feet. He turned around and attempted to evade the glowing trinket as he did not know what it was capable of. But before he could take 2 steps away from the Conduit, he was suddenly bathed in white light and vanished.

Now the manipulated Shadow Wolf and the deranged Balance Guardian were all alone.

A/N: All incantations are purely made up.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: In all honesty, I don't own anything or anyone in this chapter, so don't bother asking.

Kildiazar walks into the room. Kain is being dog piled by Val and Widdle Waziel.

**Kain:** Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!! GET 'EM OFF ME! GET 'EM OF ME!

**Kildiazar:** Whatever! You're not needed.

Raziel prepares for the scene.

**Kildiazar:** Are you sure you wanna go through with this?

**Raziel:** I've faced demons worse than Widdle Waziel before, but why do I have a feeling I'm going to deeply regret this?

**Kildiazar: **Uh… we'll see. Anyway, on with the next chapter.

**Chapter 5**: The Traitor Amidst

Raziel felt the familiar sensation of being sent to the spectral realm as the world warped and twisted sickeningly around him. It seemed like forever in an instant before the light finally began to fade away. Slowly, the world began to reshape itself and he realized he was still in the material realm. He dizzily got up and surveyed his surroundings. He looked up from the ground and saw three hooded figures staring down at him. His burning white eyes came into contact with three other pairs of glowing red eyes except for one, whose left eye was golden yellow.

The one with an eye of golden yellow dropped to her knees in front of Raziel and proceeded to bow down as a devout worshipper. "Have mercy, My Lord. Spare me" Jack pleaded.

"What in all hell are you talking about, Jack? Are you familiar with this creature?" Kim, the Great Leader Maddie, asked out of confusion rather than curiosity.

"It looks like that guy from Val's dream if I'm not mistaken," said Yrouna.

"No! Don't you see? He is the One, The Champion! He is the one destined to slay all Vampires," shouted Jack. There was an unmistakable tinge of fear in her voice. As minute as it was, it was still there.

"Then why do you seem afraid? You said it yourself. You're not a Vampire." Kim stated this fact with air of an interrogator.

'_No. But you are. Both of you are.'_ Jack thought to herself. She turned back to face Raziel. "My Lord, please forgive them their impertinence. They did not mean to offend your Sublimity."

"What the hell is going on here, Jack? We all want answers. Tell us what you know." Yrouna snapped at the shape-shifter.

"You are not my superior and I am not answerable to you! And as for you, Peacekeeper" Jack vehemently pointed at the Great Leader Maddie. "You among all of us should know very well what is happening here. Do you disregard the prophecies so? This entity before us is the Champion of _my_ race."

"Then forgive me for being so blithely ignorant of shared history. But if I am not mistaken, you are the only one of your kind. You are an accident, remember?" Kim retorted with equal fervor.

Raziel shook his head as he watched the juvenile creatures squabble amongst themselves. Did all fledglings bicker so much? Raziel could sense that the creatures were merely several centuries old. He had had it up to his nonexistent neck, or at least what remained of it, with these… children.

"**ENOUGH!!**" Raziel shouted with the most forceful voice he could muster. "Do I not have a say in any of this?"

The Wraith appeared more fearsome than ever before. His eyes shone through the darkness with a penetrating white luminescence. Raziel looked like even more of a devil than Gamin. Yrouna and the Great Leader Maddie stood down but readies themselves, should the Wraith attack.

Jack, on the other hand, went directly in front of Raziel and knelt down before him. "What is it you desire, My Lord? Speak it and it shall be done. Make use of your good servant."

"First of all, you are not my servant. Second of all, you are all wasting my time. Third, if you continue to claim that you are my servant, then make yourself useful and tell me where we are. I dare to think that I am no longer in Nosgoth as we are located in a forest."

'_Nosgoth, I haven't heard that word spoken in ages._' Jack mused in silence. My Lord, you are correct to assume that you are no longer in that realm. You are here now in the forest of Kalach by the outskirts of the city of San Guine."

"Do you know of any means that I may return to Nosgoth?"

"No, my Lord. Without the Conduit, you are stranded here."

"What is this Nosgoth? You know something that you're not telling us." Kim insisted adamantly.

"It doesn't really matter. Nosgoth is but a hellish dystopia of unnamed atrocities scrounging in a barren wasteland. I know it well but I strive to forget."

All of a sudden, Kim's bright red eyes began to glow even brighter as she used her telekinesis to levitate Raziel and keep him in place. Dark tendrils rose from the ground and began to bind the wraith. Raziel struggled but some powerful form of magic kept him from moving.

"What sorcery is this, woman?" Raziel snapped at the were-snake.

"Kim, what are you doing?" Jack almost screeched in alarm.

"You said it yourself. He's stranded here. And I think I speak for the better good of all San Guine when I say creatures not of this world should not be allowed to roam free.

"I demand you release me this instant, you vile woman!" Raziel bellowed.

In spite of all this commotion, Yrouna cautiously walked over to Raziel, put her right hand to his cowl and pulled it off in one swift movement. Raziel struggled to stop her but found that he could barely move his body. He just stayed there, frozen, floating above the ground, completely immobile, staring at his cowl clutched in the hands of a complete stranger.

"Oh Crap," gasped Yrouna. "He's jawless! I…I think, I'm gonna be sick."

True to her words, Yrouna suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She placed her empty hand upon her abdomen. She knew what was coming next. The contents of her stomach were forcing their way up her esophagus. She tried to stop it but it was no use. She hurled right in front of Raziel. Instinctively, she put her right hand to her mouth and unfortunately, she still held Raziel's cowl. Kim merely laughed and made a mockery of her pitiable friend.

"Whatever is the matter with you girl? Is my grotesque appearance too much for your stomach to handle?" Raziel goaded.

"And so curiosity killed the cat," Kim stated flatly.

Yrouna clutched the soiled cowl as she doubled over and fell to the ground. Raziel, Kim and Jack looked down upon the unconscious were-cat before averting their attention to more important matters.

The Great Leader Maddie used her telekinetic powers to twirl Raziel around to face her. She floated up a few inches so that they were of the same height.

"Kim! You have no right to restrain him like that!" Jack pleaded with the Great Leader.

"You can say what you want but what I see here is devourer of souls. I, among all of you, would know how potentially dangerous such a creature can be. Therefore, I am left with no other option save to detain him."

And so it was, the Great Leader Maddie kept the Wraith in unseen fetters. While Jack, the self-proclaimed all-knowing Witch and renegade to her race was forced to watch as her liberator remained under captive grip of the Telekinetic Dayang or Guru.

**Kildiazar**: Yehey! I love this chapter! You ok Raziel?

**Raziel:** (twitch twitch) My… cowl?

Kain is laughing his head off despite being buried underneath a shadow wolf and a kid wraith.

**Kildiazar:** Don't be too happy Kain. You're up next and I've arranged with Val to give you a _**special**_ treatment.

**Kain:** (gulp) As long as it doesn't involve this kid. (points at Widdle Waziel)


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Kain or his Legacy. I only own Val. I don't even own Ms. Razo either. Credit for that goes to _The Blind Destroyer of Truth and Dreams_.

**Kildiazar:** Alright Kain, ya ready?

**Kain:** JUST GET ME AWAY FROM THIS KID!! (tries to escape Widdle Waziel's killer hug)

**Kildiazar: **Um… it's your funeral.

**Widdle Waziel:** I'm hungwy, gwandpa. I want souls.

All of a sudden, the door bursts open and in walks an obnoxious woman, Ms. Razo, complete with fake plastic smile and all.

**Ms. Razo:** I am look for… eh… Raziel?

Raziel walks in.

**Raziel:** That would be me, lady.

**Ms. Razo:** Oh, hello Raziel. I'm Ms. Razo and I be your torment for today.

**Raziel:** Eeeeek! Someone save me from this vile woman with horrible English grammar. Gasp! My astute capabilities of soliloquy are swiftly diminishing.

**Widdle Waziel:** Hey, are you picking on my dad?

**Ms. Razo: **You going away now little kid.

**Kain:** Stop picking on them you wench! (Kain promptly kills Ms. Razo.) Here you go child. Eat!

**Widdle Waziel:** Yehey! Soul! He devours Ms. Razo's soul and starts choking.

**Raziel:** Kain, you fool! You know very well he cannot devour full souls till he is older. Raziel does the Heimlich maneuver on Widdle Waziel and he spits out the soul.

**Kildiazar:** Kain, I suggest you go to the chapter now.

**Ms. Razo:** _I'll be back… _(fades into oblivion)

**Chapter 6: We are Legion**

An enormous flash of light filled the entire room of the Pillars. The light completely banished the maddening roaches that once plastered every crevice in the room. Both Val and Kain were instantaneously snapped back into reality.

The room of the Pillars was completely silent. Two figures stared motionlessly at the spot where a certain blue wraith once stood. All that was left was the Conduit crystal. It glistened brightly yet innocently in the eyes of the two bewildered onlookers.

A few seconds passed and the eyes of the two met each other's gaze. The Vampire's face was full of rage. The Shadow Wolf on the other hand, had a look of indifference. Ever so slowly, Val neared the Conduit, picked it up and placed it in the confines of her robes. She did this without breaking away from Kain's penetrating gaze. She knew full well never to take one's eyes off the enemy.

She glared fiercely at Kain and Kain did the same in return. For what seemed like hours, which was actually only a few minutes, the two had a death-defying staring contest and neither seemed to be willing to give up.

In the end, Val decided to end the contest by shifting into her wolf form. Too fast for mortal eyes, she transmogrified into a lupine beast with the claws of a bear, the jaws of a tiger and the teeth of a shark. In a single bound, she was soaring through the air; tooth and claw directed at Kain.

At the last possible moment, the Vampire Overlord became an obscure veil of mist, causing Val to pass harmlessly right through him. He rematerialized a second after just behind the Shadow Wolf. Despite his injuries, he was not going down without a fight. And whatever this creature before him was, it had interfered at the worst possible time and it was going to be its last.

Kain swung the Reaver at Val, who almost dodged it. The blade caught a glancing fragment of her flesh. If she hadn't moved, her entire left arm would have been hewn through like a white hot knife through butter. Val's shoulder was a fountain of silver, gushing forth to repair the damage done.

Val held up both palms in defense at Kain's direction and instantly he was racked with agonizing spasms, as before. Sunlight seared him, boiled his blood. Lighting arrows pierced his undead heart. His bones snapped and shattered, jabbing in and out of obscure angles, only to be reformed. The great Scion of Balance fell to his knees. It was Moebius all over again. Only now, a thousand times worse.

Feebly, he looked up at his tormentor, a mere child. Something was certainly wrong about this. Why was He, the sublime Emperor of Worlds, at the mercy of this juvenile guileless creature?

Abruptly, however, his torment ceased. Kain glanced up to see that the girl no longer extended her hands at him. Instead, she reverted back to her bestial form and was growling at him. It only mildly surprised Kain that as she snarled, he could still understand what she was saying.

"Why does everyone want to kill me? I only want to live." Val uttered between bared teeth.

'_Very well then,_' Kain thought. He would indulge her.

Kain transformed himself into his own wolf form. He had not done this in centuries but as dormant as this Dark Gift was, it had not disappeared entirely.

"You need not speak in Lupine tongue in order to hide your words, whelp. I hear them still." Kain answered back in a growling fashion.

All of a sudden, Val's eyes widened with shock and surprise, as though she had just realized something completely out of the ordinary. The vampire she was now staring at had just turned into a wolf. That was unnatural. Never had she encountered a vampire with such a gift. But then again, judging by his energy aura, she should not have been surprised. Not to mention, this was not the same world she knew.

"You," Val no longer growled but whimpered with a tinge of fear. "You just turned into a Wolf. Vampires can't become Wolves. They're not supposed to. It's unheard of. It… it can't… be!" she stammered.

Kain on the other hand kept a cool head. "Do not assume that you are the only one gifted with that dark ability, wolf," he laughed. "I, too, possess many arcane skills well beyond your comprehension."

"You… you're…you're a hybrid!" she stuttered. "Half and half of two different forms of the undead! I never thought such things really did exist. They're only supposed to be in books and legends. You must be a Paragon!" she exclaimed.

"A Paragon?" mused Kain

"You know, a Paragon. The Highest form of the undead," she cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, if you put it that way, I suppose then, yes, I am indeed a Paragon. But enough of this! You are more a nuisance than you are worth, whelp!"

And with that he lunged at Val. In turn, Val charged at Kain. The two beasts raged on at each other for at least half an hour. As before, neither one showed the slightest sign of stopping. For each attack, the opponent would always have a counter attack. Whenever one of them managed to cause damage, the injuries would simply disappear completely as though they were never there. Once, Kain succeeded in pinning down Val to the ground, thus causing Val to turn into mist and float out of reach. When Val resumed her form, the battle continued. When Val did manage to pin down Kain, Kain mimicked her by also turning into mist.

Kain tried using some of his Dark Gifts such as lightning and immolate. However, the effects of such attacks were not very long-lasting for the Shadow Wolf. Even Kain's telekinetic blasts did little to impede Val for her shadow form could not be touched by such an attack At times, Val would turn invisible and Kain had to rely on his senses to know where she was. This went on and on in repetition. Attack, pin down, mist, repeat. Before long they both tired of it.

Val snarled viciously at Kain and raised one paw at him mimicking his gestures when he was using his telekinesis. Immediately, Kain felt his heart being crushed into a bloody pulp. He felt as though he was engulfed in white hot flames and that his head was about to explode. Pain racked his entire body. He felt the air being squeezed out of his lungs. He dropped on the floor and roared in anguish.

But Val now had more control over her torturous capability than she did the first time she used this power. She formed a whip out of her energy and lashed at Kain. It hit his face leaving a deep gash on his skin. Surprisingly, his wound did not heal itself unlike before. She whipped him again… and again… and again, making sure he would suffer as much pain as possible. Several lacerations appeared on Kain's back, shoulders arms and neck and several other body parts. Blood was leaking onto the floor and a small puddle was beginning to form.

She turned the whip into a spiked chain and wrapped it around Kain. He could not move and Val now had the upper hand. But she was not yet done. She then formed a blade out of her energy and fashioned it in the likeness of the Soul Reaver blade. Kain would have seen it had his eyes been trained to see raw energy. She strode over to Kain and thrust the invisible blade into his chest. The pain was intolerably excruciating. It felt as though Kain's soul, his very essence of being was being stripped away from him.

'_Eidolon, now is the time. Show yourself_'' The Shadow Wolf mentally pleaded with the specter_. 'Enough of this! Please, I don't know how much longer I can hold him off. My power has its limits too.'_ In her heart, Val was afraid that what happened in her dream could occur now and leave her vulnerable. This would be the most inappropriate time for her powers to fail her.

Instantaneously, the ghostly apparition of Eidolon reappeared, as though on command. Accompanying her were several other distorted phantoms of ages past. There were four others in total. In chronological order, the reincarnations stepped forth. The first was a woman of the whitest skin with what looked like numerous tattoos covering nearly every inch of her flesh. But upon closer inspection, they were her veins and blood vessels displaced so near the surface they appeared as distinct markings of constellations. In her hand she held Moebius' accursed staff.

Kain mentally convinced himself that it was merely an illusion. The agony he now experienced was not the doing of the Timestreamer's enchanted Scepter but that of the child standing before him.

The second phantasm was predominantly a wolf but with a horse-like head and enormous jaws of mangled teeth. Its feet were claws of razor sharp stone and its fur was coated with acidic venom so potent, it burned nearly everything it came into contact with.

The third incarnation was an insect-like being with six spindly legs. Its head was a cross between that of a spider's and that of a dragon's. Two antenna-like appendages protruded from the vile creature's neck to serve as its hands.

The fourth and final specter was a massive serpent possessing a row of spikes upon its back. Though this final manifestation was not nearly as impressive in appearance compared to its predecessors, it was still obviously the most powerful of the four spectral entities that had only now just reappeared after several centuries. Based on Kain's experience, this being could cause things to happen with merely the power of thought. It could create distortions in time, space and dimension on a whim. Its mere gaze was utterly lethal. Kain knew all this information well, for this potent creature had been the final catalyst in the downfall of Kain's debauched empire.

The six incarnates and reincarnates advanced on Kain as a single unit. They were many. They were one. They spoke as a single voice, "We are Legion!"

Kain looked up at Val and saw that she was different somehow. She was no longer that naïve, immature, and inexperienced Shadow Wolf that stood before Kain awhile ago. She was now a deranged beast, full of rage and power. It was as if some hidden wild animal suddenly sprung to life in Val's heart, something dark, evil and uncontrollable. Her crystal blue eyes were no longer glistening like the color of water. Instead, they were now pitch black. Even the whites of her eyes were gone, replaced by darkness. Only a miniscule white slit remained in the middle of that darkness. But it was so tiny it was barely noticeable. She was now a monster fuming with immensely terrible power.

They descended upon Kain and smote him down. Then Darkness overwhelmed the Vampire.

In the crevices of his perverse and distorted mind, Kain awoke. Light could not penetrate the Darkness of pitch that had encompassed him. Nearby, he perceived the presence of the child who only earlier dared to oppose him but now she had been severely changed. Now, she took on the appearance of an even younger human. Her new guise looked to have the age of around ten or less. She was sprawled on the ground, weeping her eyes out. Kain regained his composure and neared her.

As he closed in on the fragile form, such a contrast to her earlier formidable appearance, Kain was met by yet another surprise. The girl's body was riddled with disease; a pox was upon her. Little raised dots of scarlet covered the entirety of her skin giving the impression of goose-flesh.

Before coming too close to the prostrate girl, Kain sensed there was something wrong in this exigence or lack thereof. Utter shock and alarm dawned upon Kain as he realized his claws were bereft of the Reaver.

Kain mentally reassured himself that this was merely a representation of his mind. He willed the Soul Reaver to appear before him but all he could muster was a faint ethereal image too insubstantial to sustain itself. Once again, he reassured himself that it was only his mind. It would be back in its rightful place when he came to back in the physical world. Now, he had more urgent matters.

The child had stopped her weeping. Carefully, she raised her head. Bloodshot eyes met Kain's maleficent gaze. "In Omnibus Requiem Quaevisi" she spoke in a raspy voice, weary from sobbing.

Kain was taken aback by this statement. "What did you say?" he asked in genuine bewilderment. Latin had been completely obliterated from human minds. Texts and scrolls were burned. Those who spoke it were executed. No one remembered the language save Kain and his decadent Sons. In that manner, they could discuss their strategic plans in safety, knowing that anything they spoke could not be comprehended by mortal fools.

"In Omnibus Requiem Quaesivi," she repeated. "Et Nusquam Inveni. I have searched for peace everywhere but have not found it. Please, don't kill me."

"And why should I not? Give me good reason." Kain snapped back at her with a blunt tongue.

"I am merely a voice in your head. The least you can do is hear me out. If you do so, it will make things much easier for the both of us."

"Very well, but only if it is of significance," Kain sighed. In truth, he was curious as to her origins. "What have you to say?"

"Look into my eyes. I simply want to know. What is it that Vampires see when they look at me? Why does everyone want me dead?"

Kain did gaze into her eyes. At the very most, he felt nothing. That was it. He felt nothing. He couldn't move. He was completely paralyzed. The more he stared at her, the more he couldn't look away.

Val sensed his current petrified state and looked away. She would not get any answers if he were a mere statue. "Do you see what I mean? I'm not even physically looking at you yet you were seemingly turned to stone. I want to know why."

"In all honesty, child, I too, am curious, though I have no answers to your query. But I have a few questions of my own."

"Oh do tell, but first, let us make our surroundings more suitable than this dank asphyxiating void." She made a gesture with her hand and suddenly the scenery changed. Darkness was banished and they were back at the Pillars. The Reaver was still missing though. Kain took his place upon the throne as Val seated herself in the center of the marble flooring, directly in front of Kain. "Ask away"

"Firstly, I would like to know your name and what manner of creature you are."

"My name is Valwique but I don't rightly know what I am. A Shadow Wolf seems to be the best term to describe me. I can turn into shadow form, as well as become invisible and turn into mist and I have only mastered the ability to transform into a Wolf. I have yet to learn what other bestial forms I may take."

"What is your purpose here?" Kain asked.

"I have fulfilled my purpose already and all I want to do is to go back home. My keeper must be worried."

"Your keeper?"

"I am a dog. I do not own myself." Val put her right hand into the pocket of her robe and swiftly drew out the Conduit. She examined it in her hand before presenting it to Kain. "Do you know what this is, Kain? The Vampire Overlord had not introduced himself formally so she wondered how she came to know the name. It just came out of her mouth.

"No, I can't say it looks familiar. Why do you ask?"

"I thought as much." Val's casual tone was suddenly replaced by one harsher and more commanding. "Bephesda Alamimnon Sanguino Terra Firma!" she chanted.

The Conduit began glowing threateningly once more and Val stepped a few paces away, rolling the glass orb towards Kain.

"Farewell, Vampire," she growled.

There was an intensely bright flash of light and Val was all alone. She just stood there, silently cherishing just another memory of her vampire tortures.

"Bravo, little one, Bravo," Eidolon spoke as she rematerialized by Valwique's side. "A most remarkable performance on your part! I did not think Kain to be so gullible. Tricking him into thinking it was all in his mind was brilliant. I could not have done it better myself." She gestured as though clapping but no sound emanated.

"What is this? Another mind to be poisoned by The Madness?" came an unbidden voice. Ariel, former Balance guardian, was curious as to what was Kain's latest trickery.

"No, mother," Eidolon replied calmly. "She _**is**_ the Madness."

Val examined the Soul Reaver in her hands intently before looking up at the two spirits hovering before her. She tightened her grip on the hilt of the Legendary Blade as she spoke. _**"The Madness?"**_

A/N: Here, I have simply reversed the roles from the original version. Instead of Kain probing Val's mind, this time Val invades his own, with help of course. Also, the significance of the four apparitions will be explained in later chapters. No, they are not a Nosgothic variation of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Kain: Gasp! I didn't expect her to be that powerful.

Kildiazar: This is just the beginning, Kain.

Kain collapses in a heap. Widdle Waziel walks in eating a bowl of Gerber's Baby Souls.

Widdle Waziel: Mmmmmmmm… Peas and cawwots taste so good. Hi Gwandpa! Gwanda? Gwandpa…

He pokes Kain and pulls his hair.

Kildiazar: Give him a break, kiddo. He's been through a lot. Waitaminute! Do that again.

Widdle Waziel: Pull his hair.

Widdle Waziel pulls Kain's hair.

Kildiazar: Cool it isn't even a wig anymore.

Widdle Waziel: I think he used this.

Widdle Waziel holds up a bottle marked "Root Crop's Hair Growth Formula"

Kildiazar: Ooookkkkkkkaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy.

A/N: Just so you know, I don't entirely own Root Crop's Hair Growth Formula. Credit goes to my sister Yrouna.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: **I only own Val, Angelo, Tiberius Cain and TJ. Everything else is not mine. Oh yeah and I own Widdle Waziel too.

Shortie: Widdle Waziel is riding on Kain.

WW: Weee! Good horsie!

Kain: I am not a horsie!

Raziel: Oooh, a horsie! (jumps on Kain) Weee! A horsie!

WW: See, I told you so.

(The entire cast comes in and jumps on Kain)

Everyone: Good horsie!

Kain: underneath dog pile Why me?

**Chapter 7**: Kain and Cain

Kain convulsed as he felt the overwhelming pain constrict him. Having traveled through time before, the experience of passing through alternate dimensions was not new to him. He felt the whole world collapsing around him, crippling him, crushing him. And just when he thought he would simply vanish into oblivion, everything returned to their normal state. He was crouched on the ground, writhing in intense agony. He had to find someway to recover quickly. **He needed blood.**

Feebly, Kain looked up at the dark sky. He saw that he was in some sort of forest. He clearly wasn't in Nosgoth anymore, for Nosgoth no longer had any forests.

His senses told him he was not alone. He turned around and his golden eyes caught sight of three hooded beings staring down at him.

"Oh no! Not again," wailed Yrouna. "This isn't Val"

"That may be true," replied Jack. "But I'm guessing we're on the right track. Val must have been nearby when he was taken in by the Conduit."

"What makes you say that?" Kim asked, puzzled.

"Just look at him. He's all bloody… and in pain… and he's a Vampire. It's only logical to assume Val was nearby."

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Raziel giddily looked up from his invisible fetters. He was vaguely aware of his surroundings and noticed that the three hooded figures were now crowded around a fourth figure. He shook his head and tried to clear his mind. The unseen shackles were somehow hampering his senses. His vision wasn't normally this hazy. In fact it was normally as keen as an eagle's or even sharper than an owl's in the darkness.

Raziel saw that his cowl was spread upon a large rock a few meters away from him. He tried to stand up and reach for it but found that he could not move his arms and legs. As awareness, returned, he realized he was "tied" to a tree with various magical runes and symbols engraved in them. They glowed with a fluorescent greenish tinge. As Raziel stared at these symbols for a few moments, his eyes adjusted to the lighting.

With much effort, his sight was no longer indistinct and he could now clearly see the being surrounded by the three hooded figures. **It was Kain.**

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Kain growled at the hooded ones and attacked. He lunged at Jack and tried to bite her neck. However, Jack was ready as ever. She held his shoulders trying to keep him at bay and forced a temporary freezing spell on him. Kain's wide open mouth, his fangs bared, froze three inches from her neck. Jack quickly let go of Kain and backed away. She knew the freezing spell wouldn't last very long and so stood behind the able defenses of Kim and Yrouna, readying her next spell.

Kain turned from Jack to Yrouna. He was about to attack when he suddenly felt being lifted into the air by some unseen force. He glanced at Yrouna who stood bewildered but still in a defending stance. He then turned his gaze at Kim, whose eyes were glowing brightly. She had one hand outstretched in Kain's direction.

Kain tried to use his telekinesis to negate hers but he was too weak. He was desperate for blood so he merely dissolved into a flock of bats, breaking Kim's concentration. He decided to find an easier prey to feed himself with. He could feel Kim vainly trying to drag him back but he ignored it. Her grip weakened as he flew higher and higher and finally it was gone.

Kain flew up as swiftly and as far away from the forest as he possibly could. However, his thirst for blood forced him to descend. He needed to regain his strength so he searched for a quick snack to fill him up.

A swarm of bats flew over a large strangely colored edifice. It certainly attracted Kain's attention. He would have been blind not to notice the bright neon sign saying _**"The Underworld." **_ The noise that emanated from the building was loud enough to wake the dead. It was so deafening, the entire flock of bats almost crashed into each other. The sound was interfering with Kain's supersensitive hearing.

Weakened by his injuries, his thirst for blood and the earsplitting racket, Kain was forced to land. Perhaps some wandering human would be unfortunate enough to chance upon him and be his next meal. He alighted on the cold hard filthy pavement. Actually, he dropped out of the sky and crash landed on the cold hard filthy pavement. Kain returned to his normal form. At least now his hearing was not as ultra-sensitive as it was in bat form.

Almost instantly, he spied a slutty woman with legs as fat as tree trunks and a face that could curdle milk. Kain cringed at the thought of consuming such distasteful blood from such a repulsive wench, but he was so thirsty. This woman's foul blood would have to suffice. Besides, a prostitute would make such easy prey.

With slight hesitation, he sprung upon the unsuspecting wench. Kain slit her throat before she could utter a scream. He then severed her flesh and drank her life blood. The taste was purely intoxicating. He could tell she had recently drunk a lot of alcohol. This had a drugging effect on his parched tongue making him feel lightheaded.

Kain cursed at his own folly. A great vampire Lord such as himself should not have lowered himself to drinking the blood of a whore.

Suddenly a clawed hand like icicles clamped upon his broad shoulder and whirled him around. He was now face to face with an irate deity. Her smirk tarnished her beautiful face. Her emerald green eyes flashed as her hair red as flame danced with the chilling wind. Her grip upon his shoulder tightened. Kain's senses told him that she was no mere mortal. The woman spoke…

"Alright, fledgling, what the hell do you think you're doing, feeding on a human like that? It's disgraceful. We all have to control our thirst, you know and yet you seem so desperate to feed, you just had to pick her of all people."

Kain looked at her dumbly. For over a thousand years, he had never been so insulted like this. No one had ever dared call him a fledgling.

"And don't forget… it isn't allowed. Malthus and his pet Wolf could patrol this area anytime. If he finds this…" She pointed to the corpse of the poor bitch. "You could be in so much trouble and you'd be putting the other vampires in jeopardy as well."

He tried to speak but no words came out. Didn't this woman know who he is?

"Well, fledgling, speak!"

Finally, at these words, Kain found his voice.

"S-Severina? Can it be possible? You and Tiberius disappeared from Nosgoth centuries ago."

"Kain? As in Kain of Nosgoth, Vampire Overlord Kain? Dude! It's been a long time since I last saw you. What happened to you? You look so… chewed up" Severina said, suddenly speaking in a high cheery hyperactive voice.

She suddenly slapped Kain hard on the back. It was meant to be a friendly slap but having the strength of 40 vampires or 400 mortal men made it a rather painful slap

"I would prefer not to talk about it right now."

Just then a winged figure stumbled outside the entrance of the nightclub. He looked like a teenager, around 19, with black spiky hair held up by much hair gel. He wore a dark gothic outfit with a lot of chains. Strung upon his neck was a pendant that looked like a conventional hexagonal coffin, complete with a fearsome bat's head and wings engraved on it. His overall appearance was that of a young vampire, though it was only a trick of drinking much blood. He even had the claws to match. Judging by the wings upon his back, the vampire looked similar to the way Raziel looked just before he was cast into the abyss, only much younger. Kain thought at first that he was Raziel but a second glance told him otherwise.

Kain and Severina turned around to see the vampire clutch his head in pain and mumble incoherently to himself. He looked like he was about to fall but Severina quickly grabbed him and he collapsed in her arms.

"Candy? Candy! Wake up! Guess who dropped by!" she cooed, "gently" shaking him in her arms.

The vampire's eyes snapped open. Severina helped him to get up. But he still had the palm of his claw massaging his temple as though he had some sort of headache.

"I hear Raziel's voice calling out to me. It's as if, he is somewhere nearby. I have this sudden feeling that the very boundaries of dimension have been meddled with. Gamin's magic is at work. I can sense it. Either that or I've had one too many cans of Booze," the vampire mumbled in his stupor.

"Don't be silly, Candy. Gamin hasn't been around for over a millennium. The only way Gamin could be summoned is with the Conduit crystal, which is in the safely guarded hands of the Shifter's Cult…"

"…which mysteriously vanished without a trace some years ago." Tiberius continued. He looked up at Severina and stared straight into her eyes. "Sevvie, what if someone has gotten the Conduit crystal and summoned Gamin? You'd be in serious trouble and so would I. I don't want to lose you or any of our children."

"And who would be stupid enough to do that?" asked Severina.

"Someone who doesn't know Gamin, someone like…" his eyes widened in shock and revelation "like… **VAL!"**

"And what does that have anything to do with Raziel?"

"Ummm… frankly, I don't know… yet. It's just this feeling, you know. Anyway what were you saying again?"

"Wait, what was I gonna say again?" she scratched her head in frustration. "I know there's something I'm forgetting but I just can't remember what."

"Ahem!" said Kain in a forceful tone, drawing the attention of the two vampires to him.

"Oh yeah! Now, I remember. Kain's here." Severina eagerly pointed at the white haired vampire standing on the sidewalk.

Tiberius Cain blinked a couple of times and stared at Kain. "Well, now I guess it wasn't The Booze. If Kain is here then it isn't impossible that Raziel would be nearby,"

"Tiberius Cain? Minime senuisti! (1)" Kain gasped in surprise."

"Well, neither have you," Tiberius replied, suddenly forgetting about the nagging feeling at the back of his mind. "If this isn't a pleasant surprise, Kain, how nice of you to visit.

You're finally in my world for once. But if try to do any conquering, you've got another thing coming. I have a few tricks up my sleeve too, you know."

"And what, pray tell, is that?" Kain asked.

"I have access to something far worse than any demon, monster, Sarafan, Hylden or any other creature you've ever battled with. I have a whole army of them waiting within the address book of my e-mail account and I could summon them upon the touch of button."

"What could you possibly have that I should fear? You are just a fledgling compared to me."

Severina blushed at the reminder of the insult she hurled upon Kain awhile ago.

Tiberius leaned close to Kain and whispered into his ear "Never underestimate the wrath of an incited mob of crazed fan girls. Few things on this earth are deadlier than that."

Severina walked over to Cain and said "Candy, maybe I should go fetch TJ now. He certainly would like to see this."

"Sure thing, Honey"

As Severina left the two vampires in a hurry, Kain and Cain continued to converse.

"Perhaps, I should treat you with the same hospitality you showed me and Severina back at Nosgoth, Kain" sneered Tiberius.

With the strength of 35 vampires, Tiberius Cain hauled Kain into the dark alley behind the nightclub. And with that he began to beat him up relentlessly. A swift kick sent Kain tumbling into the wall, followed by a left hook and a right uppercut. Kain was too weak to defend himself. Not even the blood of that bitch he drank earlier healed him of his injuries fully. In fact, the alcohol content in her blood was what impeded Kain's usually astute fighting abilities. Tiberius slashed at his face and pulled at his silvery white hair. Vampiric blood stained the walls of the alley. Kain feebly attempted to retaliate but found that he could not even deal a single blow.

"Give it up Kain," Tiberius mocked. "I know all your moves, so don't even try."

"Why are you doing this?" Kain panted, trying to catch his breath.

"Why, you ask? I'll tell you why; because I have good reason to, I have every right to do so and it isn't everyday I find you this vulnerable. In fact, it isn't everyday I find you at all. You ruined Raziel's gift! I know what you did. Don't think of me as a fool. I know much of your treachery. You impaled me on the Soul Reaver! You massacred the entire Razielim clan! And to top it all off, you cast my wife into the abyss! You betrayed us all! For all of that, I cannot forgive you." He sighed. "But I fully understand why you had to do it." His voice suddenly changed from furiously outraged to exhausted yet concerned.

Cain held out his claw and helped Kain get up on his own two feet. Kain leaned upon the other vampire for support. "Well Kain, how does it feel to be the weakling for once?" Cain asked.

"Hmph! I'll live. I didn't go through hell and back only to be at the mercy of the likes of you. But I was wrong. You have changed after all."

"I'm not the same fledgling you met 8 centuries ago. You'll probably need a drink and some new clothes, I believe"

"I don't want to talk about it"

"You don't have to; it has the Shadow Wolf's name written all over it."

The pair stumbled out of the dark alley and saw two figures walking in the distance. It was Severina accompanied by a small child, around the age of 9. At the sight of Kain, the child ran pell-mell straight to him, carrying a kiddy orange backpack. Kain sensed that the boy was a vampire but to be turned at such a young age was inconceivable. The child had an ecstatic grin plastered upon his face as he put down his backpack on the ground.

"Wow! I can't believe it! It's really you! Kain! The Scion of Balance! And all this time I thought my dad was only joking when he said he went to Nosgoth. And I thought you were just a video game character."

"Tiberius, what in the hell is this boy talking about?"

Cain mumbled to himself "Poor Kain, not even aware of his own Legacy" He turned to the two vampires and sighed "Kain, I want you to meet my son, TJ. TJ, this is Kain, now say hello."

"Hello Kain, can I have your autograph?" TJ chirped with glee as he dug around his backpack.

TJ's backpack was practically adorned with pins and buttons of various images of Kain, Raziel and Tiberius Cain. He took out a Raziel notebook and a G-tech pen and shoved them into Kain's claws.

"Just write your name on the very first page and don't scratch the pen please" said TJ in a plucky yet demanding voice.

Kain did as he was told but mentally questioned himself why he was taking orders from a little boy. He wrote his name and handed the notebook back to TJ who eagerly awaited him and was now holding a small strange-looking device in his hands. He put it up to his face and flashed it at Kain. The intense light temporarily blinded him. But as soon as he could see again, he noticed that a small picture of himself had come out of the device. Instantly, TJ took the picture and started blowing on it.

"This is called a camera, Kain. You take pictures with it. The awesome thing with this camera however, is that it can take pictures of vampires as well as humans. My dad invented it. Appareo decet nihil munditia? (2) My dad taught me Latin, you know"

"Interesting," Kain answered in an uninterested tone.

"Alright TJ, that's enough now." Cain interrupted. "Sevvie, we'd better get Joaquin to close the nightclub. It's already 3:30 AM." Cain looked at his watch to confirm the time. "It's been one heck of a night but now we have to get home before the sun rises.

After closing down the nightclub, the four vampires strode off into the direction of a large mansion. On the way there Kain and Cain still talked together, catching up on old times.

"And don't expect me to talk all Nosgothic with you from now on, only when I'm in the mood. And Kain, now that you're here you'll need a new attitude, a new look, a makeover. I can teach you how to walk the walk and talk the talk and blend in with the humans. "

"Very well, but I have just one question for you, Tiberius"

"Shoot"

"What is a dude?"

**A/N:** Hope you don't mind I put in a little Latin stuff into the chapter. Many of the characters in this story actually speak Latin.

Translations:

Minime senuisti! (1) _You haven't aged a bit!_  
Appareo decet nihil munditia? (2) Isn't it cool?


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:** The Balance Guardian and the Imbalance

Val stared at the pool of Kain's blood on the floor and the sinister smile returned to her face. Oh how she loved torturing vampires. Only now did she truly realize that. She wouldn't say it outright but she wouldn't deny it either. She lapsed back into her sadistic nature. The Soul Reaver glimmered in response. Her blue eyes were replaced by darkness once more. As she toyed with the Reaver Blade she began to softly sing a little song her siblings used to sing to the Vampires as they persecuted them. It was sung to the tune of Jack and Jill but it was so soft and gentle, almost like a lullaby.

_There was a vamp, I skinned him through_

_And burned his flesh with water_

_He groaned in pain "what shall you gain?"_

_And I just roared in laughter_

_There was a vamp, Old Tom his name_

_One heck of a complainer_

'_Hacked off his head coz he's undead_

_But I gave it back after_

_There was a vamp, "Old Maggot Man"_

_His flesh would rot and fester_

_The bowl of blood in front of him_

_Won't make him any better_

_There was a vamp and every_

_Bone in his body had been broken_

_And since the day I came to play_

_Not a single word he's spoken_

She was so caught up in her reverie that she hardly noticed the woman in a dark necromancer's garb floating rather close to her. When she finally did notice her, she attempted to exude a facade of indifference and detachment, banishing her perfervid fantasies.

"Well now, child," said Eidolon. "It would appear now that your role here is done; time to return to your world. We mustn't keep Gamin waiting."

"How do I know that you really are the one he wanted me to return with? What about her?" Val remarked blatantly, pointing at Ariel. "How do I know that she's not the one?"

"You'll simply have to trust me. How else do you think I knew about Gamin?" asked the dead necromancer.

"You have every right not to listen to her, little one." Ariel interrupted. "As she is my daughter, I know her well enough to realize how willful and conniving she can be. She will no doubt use you for her own arcane purposes.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk." Eidolon reproached, acid hanging ever so slightly in her tone. "Mother? Poisoning the well? I didn't think you would stoop down to such a vulgar level. I expected more support from you seeing how decadent this world has become." She turned to face Val. "In any case, you still have no other choice but to have faith in me, if you wish to return to your world."

"What are you talking about?" Suspicion was now evident in the Shadow Wolf's voice.

"You wouldn't even know how to work the Conduit if I hadn't told you. And even if you were to recite the incantation, you would only be absorbed into the Conduit's trans-dimensional vortex, leaving the Conduit here. We can't have that now, can we?"

The specter's words were true enough. She had not the slightest idea of the Conduit's machinations. If she refused aid from this spirit, she might as well be trapped in Nosgoth. Not to mention, if that were to happen and the premonitions she had so skeptically shown her of what was to come held any truth to them, then not only was this world beyond redemption, she would rot along with it. Finally, Val felt utterly compelled to keep the Conduit in her safekeeping. She did not know why but the obligation to keep the Conduit in her hands was too overwhelming. It was probably due to the dementia that corroded this land. Perhaps when she got back home she would return in to Jack… perhaps.

"Alright then, I'll play along for now. What do I have to do?" Val was all ears now, not that she had much choice.

"First of all, I want you to will your Dark Matter to cover the Conduit leaving no surface untouched."

Val unquestioningly did as she was told. Within moments the Conduit was wrapped in a thin layer of a mixture between shadow and substance.

"Now crush it."

"**WHAT?"** Val was utterly taken aback by this command. Would not destroying the Conduit also be severing the only connection she had to her world?

"You heard what I said. Crush it! Trust me."

Val felt at the back of her head that the spirit Ariel was smiling inwardly and thinking something along the lines of "I told you so" albeit a bit more profoundly. With unrelenting doubt, she shattered the glass shell of the Conduit. If she were to be trapped in this lifeless insane dystopia, then, hell be done with it.

Thousands of glass fragments lay scattered upon the ground. Amongst the remnants of what was once the Conduit, a single device now stood out. A blue gem encompassed by a metal frame shimmered faintly in the midst of the cracked shards.

"Ah Nexus, I should have known." Eidolon remarked to herself as she neared the center stone of the broken Conduit.

"Now what? I've destroyed my only hope of ever returning to my world. What else do I have to lose?" Val had now taken a pessimistic outlook on her situation. Who could blame her? It was all so dreary and hopeless. She never had much to live for in the first place.

"Close your eyes, Child. The next task may prove too difficult for you to carry out on your own. I will attempt to possess your body in order to aid you in this deed. Do not resist! It will make it easier for the both of us."

Resigned to her wretched fate, Val shut her eyes tight and silently willed the moment to pass. She just wanted to get it over with. The Shadow Wolf felt her right hand seek for her dagger, while her left hand held the blue gem from the ruined Conduit. Her hand gripped tightly on the hilt of the dagger, waiting in trepidation for the next move.

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A deafening wail of agony was heard throughout the hallways of the Sanctuary of the Clans. Several bewildered Dumahim vampires nearby, those who survived the massacre and came to feed on their diseased kin, looked towards the source of the cacophony but saw nothing. None knew what occurred in the room of the Pillars save the two manipulative sprits and their little lapdog.

Val was on her knees, feebly looking up at Ariel, perhaps in the hope of divine assistance. The dagger in her hand was now deeply embedded in her chest, missing her heart by millimeters. The possessed hand did not waste time in carving out her flesh, effectively making a cavity the size of her fist.

Oh how her silver blood did run, dripping to the marble floor and mixing with the puddle of Kain's Vampiric blood. Crimson and silver merged and the potent concoction was immediately absorbed by the marble. Once again, the sanguine solution disappeared completely, seemingly taken in by the Pillars.

When a substantial amount of flesh had been lacerated from her body, the blade ceased its torment. In its place, Val felt the enchanted stone in her left hand take its place. It was being forcefully shoved inside her flesh, as her body strived to recover from its injuries. Then, the deed was done. Her flesh closed in on the cavity, in effect sealing the Stone inside her body. Her robe was torn from the opening the knife made but a touch of Dark Matter would hide that well enough.

Val lay on her back, sprawled on the marble floor in exhaustion. She was utterly spent. In this weakened state, she could barely move. The day, or night for she could not tell, had been completely miserable for her. It was not everyday that one summoned a demon, was transported by said demon into a dystopian realm, attacked by hordes of mindless vampires and was deceived and used by beings that may have been dead probably a thousand years ago.

"Rest now, Child. You are not in fitting condition to travel back to your world just yet." Eidolon spoke as she left the Shadow Wolf's body.

"**WILL YOU STOP IT??!!**" It was more of a command than a question. Val could barely contain her current hatred towards the Spirit. "My name is not 'Child.' My name is **VAL!**" Her voice was beginning to sound worn and raspy from all her screams of pain and protest.

"That name is insignificant. You will have many others. I will call you whatever I want and you _**will**_ obey me." In Kain's absence, Eidolon no longer needed to lure Val into a false sense of security. Her once gentle, reassuring tone was replaced by a cold, commanding and emotionless one. "I have seen the streams of time. Your existence in Nosgoth is crucial. However, should you so much as stray from your predestined path in the slightest, you will be expelled from the time stream. That is not the outcome I had in mind when I allowed myself to be bound to the Pillars several millennia ago."

Val did not even bother replying. Half of what Eidolon said made little or no sense to her. Why would her presence be of any significance to this post-apocalyptic world? Was it not ruined and decadent enough? And how could one be expelled from time? So many questions; she yearned for answers but who would give them to her?

"Oh and you may thank me later." Eidolon added to her argument.

"Thank you? After what you've done, why would I want to even think of such a thing?" Val obviously saw this remark as little more than insult over injury.

"Think, Child! Now that the Stone is inside you, when you are pulled into the trans-dimensional vortex, it will not be left behind. In all honesty, I foresaw you to be more intuitive than this." Eidolon berated her unnecessarily.

The weary Shadow Wolf no longer cared. Eidolon could continue to scold her until the end of time itself, for all it was worth. All she wanted now was solace. She wanted none of this "pre-destined fate." She was tired of being pursued and harassed by vampires at every turn. Most of all, why would she even waste her time with a demented specter who made her perform self-induced open heart surgery on herself?

Once again, she felt her strength slowly returning. It was one of the boons of being a "Shadow Wolf" or whatever her creators wanted to call her. As she was the last of her kind left, she theorized that the absence of immortality was the price for this rapid healing. She now had the strength to sit up and take the Reaver Blade that earlier lay forgotten on the floor. Carefully, she regained her composure, stood up and strode over to the Kain's throne and casually sat down. She reclined, legs crossed, head tilted up and all.

"What do you think you're doing?" Ariel was quick to scold her this time.

"Resting, contemplating. Why? Is that a crime?" Val replied indifferently.

"You are sitting on the throne of the Pillars with the Reaver in hand." Eidolon reprimanded. "Don't get cocky! If you have any fancy notions, you can forget about them this instant. You are not destined to be the next tyrant of Nosgoth."

"Then what am I destined to be?"

"You are designed to be something far more… constructive. Fate has so much in store for you. I guarantee you won't be disappointed."

"Oh that's very helpful. Would it be too much to ask for something a little more specific?" Patience was a virtue and Val was quickly losing it.

The two spirits looked at each other in silent understanding and then at Val. It was clear that they knew something she didn't.

"Very well," Eidolon replied. "If you are so intent on finding out about your destiny and if it will make things easier, we'll tell you. You see, my Mother was the Guardian of Balance before Kain succeeded her." She gestured to Ariel. "Kain is the Scion of Balance. But because he was corrupted, the land, in turn, decayed."

"Yes, I see. The Keeper of the Balance failed to do his job. But what is my part in all of this?"

"**You are the source of the Corruption."**

"What?" Val was completely stunned. Her mind froze. These spirits were not making any sense. "You mean to say that I am the reason this world is like this?"

"In a sense, yes. It was foretold by Moebius and so it shall be. You are the _**Imbalance**_. Or at least, a physical manifestation."

"But this world was like this when I first arrived here. How can I possibly be responsible for all this?"

"Did you think time worked in a linear fashion? That is what I meant by expulsion from the time stream. You will exist in several timelines at once. This is but the first segment."

Val was absolutely stupefied. She remained seated on the throne but now she bore the full weight of the accursed land. Words failed her. All she could do was murmur to herself "How?"

"How? You ask?" Eidolon now taunted her. "You always have and you always will. It is, has been and forever will be the nature of your pre-ordained existence. Is not true that whenever you look into a vampire's eyes, they go mad?"

"Yes." She muttered.

"Your gaze only affects vampires because they are more sensitive to your ability to corrupt minds. Vampires are only seemingly infallible but in truth, there are more susceptible to certain things that humans are too numb to perceive."

Val said nothing at this. At least she finally got her long-sought-for answers. Though not how she imagined it.

"For now, do not think too much of it. You are young yet, Child. You have barely begun to realize your true fate. Your role in Nosgoth is not yet due."

"How can you even say that? It's like you don't even care about this world. Shouldn't I be trying to find a way to bypass this fate, so that this world is not condemned?"

"Haven't you been listening? Your fate has been practically laid out for you! DO NOT TRY TO CHANGE IT!"

Debating with this spirit would get her nowhere. "Alright, fine! I'll do what you want! I just want to return to my world. I think I can handle traveling though dimensions now."

"Very well but before we depart, I have a few things for you. As a token of good trust, I offer you these trinkets."

With a wave of her incorporeal hand, several objects appeared out of thin air and floated in front of the Spirit: an ornate black and white butterfly mask and a pair of twin Cryse blades.

"The Reaver is not meant to be in your hands. You are not nearly skilled enough to wield it. It belongs in the possession of a more capable swordsman."

"And who, pray tell, would that be?" Val questioned.

"Why, Raziel, of course. You must give it to him."

"I don't understand you. First, you yell at me and reproach me for being the disobeying little dog that I am and now you dangle these prizes in front of me, tantalizingly, and expect me to start begging. How skilled you are in the art of persuasion." Every word was teeming with sarcasm.

"I apologize for my irrational behavior a while ago. Being bound to the Pillars for several eons will inevitably leave a considerable effect on the mind. Now, test your rewards. I believe they're more your size."

Val stretched out her hands tentatively and grasped the Cryse Blades. Sure enough, they felt perfectly adequate in size, shape and weight in her hands. Unlike the Soul Reaver, these were weapons she could wield with ease, for someone of her stature at least. She placed them on her back and instantly a sheath appeared on her.

With reluctant hands, she took the butterfly mask. Reason was tossed aside when she felt the overwhelming desire to try it on. She strapped the bands on and slipped it upon her face.

An unwelcome sight met her in the realm of the dead. A black mass appeared before her with glowing red eyes and a vampiric aura to boot. The creature startled Val, causing her to shriek and take off the mask in terror.

"What was that?" She questioned both spirits in general.

"That was the spectral realm. What you saw was no doubt a vampire wraith. You needn't be alarmed though. With your powers, I doubt it could harm you." Eidolon answered before Ariel had the chance. "The mask not only allows you to see into the spectral plane. It actually transports you there. Taking off the mask returns you to the physical world."

"I've heard of this "spectral realm" before. My mentor Ella spoke of it to me once. But I never imagined it to be so distorted."

"In the spectral plane, time effectively stops. As a time-traveler, you may find it useful."

All of a sudden, the ground began to quake. Val stumbled a bit but quickly regained her composure. The Spirits, floating in the air, felt nothing. It was a minor passing tremor, nothing more. But the suddenness of its occurrence caught Val off guard.

"What was that?" She blurted out by instinct.

"A warning that we had better leave soon. Your mere presence here hastens the land's decay."

"Let's get going then." Val said as she gathered her possessions: her blue Illustrazio bag on her back, the Cryse Blades sheathed, slung across her shoulder, the butterfly mask atop her head and lastly, the Reaver in her right hand.

Once more, Eidolon possessed her but this did not surprise Val in the least. It was, logically, the simplest method of transporting a spirit.

Ariel looked disdainfully at the pair. There were no parting words between Mother and Daughter. They had spent an eternity together, bound to the Pillars. Now they were finally glad to be free of each other. The former Balance Guardian disappeared into the spectral realm and that was the last they saw of her.

Valwique and Eidolon, merged as one, were truly alone now. The two spoke as one, "Bephesda Alamimnon Sanguino Terra Firma!"

A bright fireball consumed them and they were no more.

**Shortie**: Ariel on the Pillars

**Ariel: **I'm bored! I wonder what the old squid is doing. (Suddenly dematerializes into the floor and rematerializes in the Elder God's lair.) Hey, iggy (EG), wazzup?

**Elder god:** Ah, it's you again, you infernal…

**Ariel:** Infernal what? (Pokes iggy) does this hurt? Huh? Huh? Huh? HUH? (Poke poke poke)

**EG:** Stop that you infernal phantasm! I'm trying to practice my lines here!

**Ariel:** You don't HAVE any lines you idiot! And come to think of it, neither do I after this chapter! Wanna go out for a coffee break?

**EG:** Make it a date and we'll call it even.

**Random Sluagh:** Hey! Can I come too, boss? I wanna decaf! Souls are so boring if they all taste the same.

**EG:** You're fired.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: **I am sorry if I have not updated for a very long time but I have been very busy going to parties and making a complete fool of myself, dressing up as a vampire for mass. But hey, when the dead call…

Disclaimer: I officially own Dudley now. He was once owned by Jack Scraper. Most of everything else here however, I don't.

**Chapter 9:** In The Vampire's mansion

The smoky skies above Sanguine City were nearly as dark as the skies of Nosgoth. Thanks to the pollution created by the mortal populace, Sanguine City was the ideal vampire habitat. The thick smog covering the city like an impenetrable blanket prevented the suns rays from touching the cracked glass windows of the innumerable buildings that littered Sanguine.

It didn't matter that the sun was just peeking over the horizon. The four vampires who stood before a large mansion would not be harmed by its fatal rays.

TJ, the child vampire, was excitedly bobbing up and down before Kain answering all his questions before he even had a chance to ask them.

"My God!" exclaimed Kain. "This entire place has been built in the likeness of…"

"…Vorador's Mansion, yeah I know. I just thought it was cool," TJ continued.

Kain looked up suspiciously at the stone golems. But instead of having birdlike wings like the Ancients, their wings were batlike. They were fashioned in such a realistic manner that he half expected them to come alive and drop down at any second.

"Do those things…" Kain asked, pointing up at the winged statues.

"… actually come alive and attack intruders? Hell no! They're for decoration purposes only," TJ interrupted once again.

"Could you please stop…"

"… interrupting you like this? Hmmm, I'll think about it,"

It was as though the child vampire could read all of Kain's thoughts, completing his sentences and all. He was positively emanating with exuberance. All of a sudden, he put to fingers in his mouth, inhaled and whistled. A shrill piercing sound filled the air. It made the other vampires cup their ears with their claws due to its extremely high pitch and intensity.

All eyes turned and looked at the fledgling vampire, who had a wide, childlike smile on his face, that sinister smile that looked so deceivingly innocent.

"Don't worry," assured TJ. "They're harmless and if they attack you it's not like you can't defend yourself" His assurance was mainly directed to Kain.

They all turned around to see two enormous black dogs, both of them rottweilers, viciously bounding up to the vampires. White foam dripped from their powerful jaws. Their eyes burned with the furious embers of the fire within. The blazing eyes only sought one target: Kain. They barked fiercely as they dashed over to him.

He stood stock still as the demonic hounds shot up to him. They flew by so fast that to a mortal they would have appeared a large black blurs with gleaming eyes. To a vampire, however, every detail could be observed before they even made contact with their target. In his weakened state, Kain could do nothing but hold out his right claw, ready to use his telekinesis. Kain's eyes narrowed as he prepared to send a telekinetic bolt at the dogs. Fortunately, Tiberius sensed what Kain was about to do and intervened. He put a claw upon Kain's shoulder signaling to him that he must not shoot. For now, he did as he was told. He did not want to anger the vampires he was with, knowing full well he would be no match against the combined strength of both Tiberius and Severina, at least not during his moment of weakness.

When the beasts finally reached him, he extended his claws and caught the first one quite easily. However, the second was close behind and knocked them both down on the cold hard ground. They lunged at him and pinned him to the ground. Kain narrowed his eyes as he tried to push them off his body. First, they went for face, then his neck, then all the rest of his body.

The dogs practically jumped on top of Kain and playfully licked the Vampire Lord. One of the dogs, the one that did not look the least bit fluffy and had a big white spot on his hindquarters, playfully nibbled at Kain's already ruined pants.

Severina put one claw on the dog's nearly nonexistent fur and proceeded to ruffle it in a rough manner. "Who's a good dog? Who's a good dog? Yes you are, Fluffy. Yes you are" Severina teased. When she tried to hug it, it desperately attempted to escape. When she released it, it looked as though it has nearly been choked to death and continued gnawing at Kain's pants.

"Spot! Stop that! Come here, boy!" Tiberius ordered. The dog willingly stopped chewing on Kain's ruined trousers and sat down by Tiberius' side. "Alright, that's enough now. Come on, we'd better go inside before the sun rises."

TJ also cooed playfully to his pet. "Hiya Spot. Did'ya miss me?" He stroked his incredibly fluffy and spotless hair. The dog panted and yawned in return. Compared to the rottweiler, TJ was so tiny he could have ridden on top of the dog as though it was a horse. He embraced him like a huge teddy bear and therefore received a few licks of joy.

TJ hopped up on Spot and steered him inside.

They all entered a large brown door which opened up to a long hallway. The walls were decked with various portraits of vampires. The first and largest portrait contained the images of Tiberius Cain, Severina and TJ. Tiberius Cain was displaying his perfect pearly white canines. Even though it was merely a portrait and not the real thing, it was sure to have made any female mortal fall into a swoon. The rest of the portraits were of Tiberius' other children of Sanguine City.

Kain continued walking along the hallway admiring the various portraits when Tiberius' claw came upon his shoulder and called his attention. Kain instinctively turned around and met Tiberius' gaze.

"I must warn you," said Tiberius "that this house…errr… this mansion can be very deceptive. It may seem like Vorador's manor from the outside. However, inside it is a labyrinth full of block puzzles, fake doors, dead ends, stairs that lead to nowhere, upside down rooms and numerous booby traps and much, much more. In short, it will make all those puzzles back at Nosgoth look like mere child's play. My mansion is the mother of all those enigmatic puzzles back in Nosgoth put together. So if you do not know the way and would not like waste time solving everything, I suggest you stick close to me."

Kain saw in Tiberius' eyes that he meant everything he said. After all, back at Nosgoth, he did create the greater majority of block puzzles that have stood unsolved over the centuries. He was one of the greatest architects Nosgoth had seen during the Vampire era. His sheer skill and ingenuity was a marvel to behold and was certainly no laughing matter. Anyone caught in one of his traps would only be able to get out if Tiberius himself willed it. Otherwise, they would probably spend the rest of eternity stuck there trying to figure it out and losing their sanity in the process. With all this in mind, Kain had no wish to wrack his brains trying to figure out his way around the mansion and so allowed Tiberius to lead him like one leading a nearly blind man.

After several twists and turns in the winding hallways, Kain realized that they were alone. The scent of dog had faded away. The soft footfalls of Severina could not be heard anywhere. And the irritating humming of TJ had disappeared completely. Kain vaguely remembered TJ saying something that the song was the "soundtrack of the Razielim clan" by someone named - what was it – "Ozar Midrashim?" However, Kain had been too uninterested in the boy's nonsensical ramblings that he had practically blocked him out from his mind, so much that he had not even noticed he was long gone. This had brought him to wonder why Tiberius had created such a nuisance of a vampire and why he had been turned at such a young age. He did not want to bother asking where he and Severina had gone. Other more important questions burned in his mind as of the moment. Now that he was alone with Tiberius, he took the opportunity of asking him.

"Tiberius, I have some questions for you," he began.

"Shoot," Tiberius replied.

"Regarding your son, whatever drove you to create him and at such a young age at that?"

"Ah… I knew you would ask that. Forgive him for being such a nuisance at times but he is just a child. You see, he has suffered so much in his human life that I believe no child should ever have to live through such a burden. His mother died when he was very young and his father was a drunkard and beat him up often, not to mention that TJ himself was afflicted with a cancer… leukemia. I could not simply watch him suffer. I decided to give him a second chance. When he died, I immediately turned him into a vampire. He could grow up if he wanted to but he chose to stay a child. And because of that, even after all that he had suffered, I see in him all the innocence I never truly had even as a human child. I was never like him and that is what I admire in him. He has still been able to retain his innocence after all he's endured. You must understand. I love him for who he is, for he is my son. Didn't you ever feel anything like that for Raziel? For the Razielim?"

"It had to be done. You know that." Kain responded defensively. _'Oh but there are still some things you do not know of' _the Vampire Overlord mused to himself.' He continued, "But you don't know how much it pained me to cast him into the abyss. Raziel, my first born son, my most trusted son, subjected to nearly a millennium of torment. It grieved me beyond all boundaries of my soul. And the genocide of the Razielim nearly drove me to madness. But I had to hide it all. I had to remain strong in front of my other sons. I could not let them see through my weakness. **It had to be done.** Does every conversation with you have to return to this subject?"

"No. I just had to get that out of my chest." Tiberius took a deep breath. "What else do you have to ask?"

"How is it possible that the boy knows so much about me? About my history? My motives? My origins? My every action? My thoughts? Nearly everything to the very last detail about me since the day I died? Not only that, he also seems to know about my future and he hints that he knows secrets I am only yet to discover."

"That is a very important question. You must understand that this world is not what it would seem to be. Somehow – I don't know how – the humans of this world have managed to find out about Nosgoth and your destiny, as well as Raziel's. Your "_**Legacy**_" has somehow leaked into this world for some strange unnatural reason. When the humans found out about it, they turned it into nothing more than a mere game, or a series of games actually. I am amazed at the human ingenuity; the subtleness of it all. They've managed to openly show to the public, without any fear, the stories of your lives… errr… unlives; your histories and destinies. Yet they are able to make it pass off as nothing more than plain fiction. And how they were able to do this remains a complete mystery even to me – believe me, I've tried. But I don't see how your coming here has anything to do with that because I've never seen it in any of the games."

"**This is an outrage!**" Kain yelled.

"Now settle down Kain, it isn't as bad as you think. None of the humans think it's real. Only Severina and I know it. Why TJ didn't even believe it was true until he saw you with his own two eyes."

"I demand you show me these… these games at once."

"In good time, Kain, in all good time. Those people were gifted with The _**Oversight**_. It wasn't their fault. And that reminds me, I too have a few questions for you such as where is the Soul Reaver and what timeline are you from?"

"What do you mean 'what timeline I am from'?"

"I need to know where you are in the game. What part are you in? It could at the very least help me put two and two together and give me an idea, somehow, of what you're doing in this world. According to the games, you were never destined to come here. I'm guessing that, since you don't have the Soul Reaver, you must be somewhere in between striking it on Raziel's head, therefore destroying it, and saving Raziel from being absorbed into the blade, therefore getting it back. So where… err… when are you?"

"I was unable to smite Raziel with the Reaver, contrary to what was foretold by the streams of time."

"Then where is the Reaver now?"

"The Wolf! She transported me here without the Reaver. There is a possibility it may now be in her possession."

"Oh God! No! We are all doomed!" Tiberius stuttered as he immediately put both claws to cover his mouth in shock.

"What is the matter Tiberius? You sound as though you have been damned."

"If Val has taken possession of not only the Conduit but also the Reaver, she is on the verge of the annihilation of all vampires. She will be unstoppable. As far as I know, the Reaver is the only weapon that can truly kill her, rather than allowing her to resurrect in another body. You've faced her. You know what she is capable of."

"True, she is a threat and must be put down immediately."

"Generally, Val is merely a misguided soul. She has the mentality of a child. Her siblings have poisoned her mind in thinking I am truly evil. They were the bait for a trap and I fell for it. There is no way to reason with her now. But in this fortress I have built, she cannot touch me. Alone, she is of no actual threat. It is those who seek to use her that I am afraid of. It is because of them that she will incite the war that will end all wars and she will destroy herself doing it."

"If she destroys herself, then why do you worry so much?"

"It will not be before she destroys us all. No doubt Gamin will also try to take vengeance on the humans who imprisoned him. Chaos beyond all chaos. This world will be Pandemonium and all that is good and beautiful on this earth will be lost! Kain, you must help me."

"How so?"

"Kain, I do not wish to play games with you, though I can't say the same for the humans but that is beside the point. The point is this world stands at the brink of a new era. Now, will you help me?"

"If you can find a way to get me back to Nosgoth, then, fine, I will."

"Alright then. I think that can be arranged. But for now do you have any other questions?"

"Many. For instance, why have transformed your body into a canvas and defiled yourself so?" Kain inquired regarding Tiberius' "Gothic" appearance.

"One word: boredom. I just wanted to experiment. Is there anything else?"

"Tell me, how in the hell do you actually expect me to walk among the humans as one of them? Other than the constant temptation to drink their blood, are the humans of this world really foolish to think I could pass for one of them? In case you haven't noticed, I haven't the least shred of humanity left in my appearance."

"Ah so you have lost the beguile spell over time, or you've forgotten. Don't worry. I will handle that in due time but for now, here we are"

The two vampires had entered a fairly large room that looked pretty much like a normal kitchen except with three refrigerators, each of which was shaped like a coffin. Tiberius neared one of them and opened it. With the exception of the vegetable compartment, it was nearly full to the brim of red and black cans of TC's Bloody Booze, each one with a picture of Tiberius Cain smiling while holding a can of TC's Bloody Booze. Just like the portrait in the hallway, the picture on the can would have also made any mortal woman drool and stare at the can for hours on end. Above the image, in bloody bold font, was written **"TC's Bloody Booze"**. Beneath it was the caption **"It's to die for".**

Tiberius took two cans out and turned to Kain saying, "Do you want your blood warm or cold?"

"Warm," he replied coldly.

Tiberius placed both cans on the table apart from each other. He pointed his right index claw finger on one of the cans. Then with amazing accuracy and precision he zapped the can on the right with a quick lightning bolt. The can was still crackling with blue energy as he picked it up and handed it over to Kain.

"(1)Ergo Bibamus" Tiberius said.

Kain looked down at the can and saw two bite sized dotted marks on the top with a sign saying: BITE HERE.

Kain opened his mouth and punctured the marks with his razor sharp fangs. With his bloodthirst taking over, he greedily gulped down the contents of TC's Bloody Booze. Even though it had come from the refrigerator only moments ago, it was warm enough to have been fresh straight out of a human's still beating heart. The taste of the blood on his parched tongue satiated his bloodlust temporarily for within seconds of finishing his first can, he asked for more. Tiberius took another can out of the fridge and heated it before Kain covetously snatched it and drank anew. Kain's wounds healed rapidly. The blood he lost during his recent fights was now being replenished. Meanwhile, Tiberius waited patiently drinking in silence for Kain to finish satisfying his bloodthirst.

After six full cans of TC's Bloody Booze, each one of a different flavor, Kain let out a loud sigh and said "This is the most divinely luscious blood I have ever tasted. Never in all my years in Nosgoth have I come upon blood as delectable as this." He laughed.

"Well, I guess you've never had flavored blood in Nosgoth. The blood you just drank came in different flavors, namely Lemon, Orange, Pineapple, Grape, Apple and Mango. And you haven't even tasted the Tropical Variation." Tiberius replied smugly.

"No, enough for now, I am satisfied,"

Tiberius stood up and went over to a stone brick wall on the opposite side of the kitchen. He carefully took out one of the stone bricks and flipped a hidden switch. Immediately, the wall slid to the side revealing a fairly sized freezing vault. Tiberius opened it with ease and took out three small bottles and set them on the table. Kain took note of the label which read **"TC's Bloody Youth Potion"**.

"This is how you are going to appear human. Three bottles of this would reduce me to a mere infant but you are well over twice my age and I suppose it will simply make you look human enough to walk about. You will keep your claws and cloven feet and your fangs but the humans will not mind. Otherwise, they would have at least noticed my wings by now and noted that I am something unnatural. And another important thing, by drinking this, you will have no need to drink human blood for around nine years or so. You can still drink blood but unless you are injured you will not _**need**_ to do so."

All the while Tiberius was saying this, he had uncapped all three bottles and mixed their contents into one wine glass. He urged Kain to drink it and drink it he did. Before long Kain felt a dizzying sense taking over his senses.

"It is taking effect. You must rest now, Kain. We will continue with our conversation when you awaken. Perhaps, we may even enlighten you concerning your _**"Legacy**_". But for now you must sleep."

Tiberius led Kain to a spare guest room (for vampires that is) where he could sleep in a coffin roughly his size.

"Your new clothes will be prepared for you tonight, Kain. But for now I have more important matters to attend to. There is only one person in all of Sanguine who always knows what's going on and I intend to have a little chat with him."

As soon as Kain was safely inside his temporary coffin, Tiberius went out of the room and into the hallway. He flipped out his brand new Nokia N20 cellphone and search for a particular number.

_**Dude of Doom. **_

As soon as he found it, he called the number and waited for that annoying psychic soothsayer voice at the other end of the line. Only then did Tiberius switch back to his not-so-Nosgothic personality:

"Yo, Dudley! Waz'up? It's TC. We gotta talk. I've got a major situation here."

A/N: For all of those who do now know Dudley, Dude of Doom, read Soul Reaver: Apocalypse by Jack Scraper.

(1)Ergo Bibamus – therefore, let us drink


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own… the usual stuff. And I especially do not own Zames and I hope he never lays eyes on this fanfic.

A/N: To those of you who know me, bear with me and this chapter. Some parts here may seem blasphemous and offensive but know that I write these for good humor and entertainment purposes only.

**Chapter 10:** The Wolf Shrine

Val fell into a swoon as the forces of dimension compressed around her. Yet she felt no pain, no agony that would normally accompany traveling via Conduit as an amateur. Oblivion was a sensation she sometimes welcomed. To end it all, all the suffering, the chase, the endless game she played with the Vampires would be the greatest consolation of all. To surrender to the receiving arms of nothingness and leave her past life behind as though it were all a nightmare and she could finally wake up to a world where all was right again.

Did she want death? No, she sought to be consumed by the great void where nothing exists or ever existed. She sought not a place but a state of being where the Vampires meant nothing, where the world meant nothing and most importantly, where she meant nothing either.

But before she could enter that eternal vacuum, she heard a voice. She heard the voice of _that _Spirit again, Eidolon, calling out to her.

"Child, you must not be troubled. Do not be consumed by your despair. I will help you and soon so will Gamin"

"But Eidolon," she answered in her mind. "Gamin did not listen. Gamin **will not** listen! He misunderstood me. If I gave up my soul, my physical body would die."

"No, it is you who misunderstood him. He asked for your soul to test you. You failed the first time but we will call upon him again. This time, I will be with you. He is my lover and I am his. He cannot deny me."

"Call him again? I don't mean to question your intentions but are you entirely sure you want to do that again?"

"Have faith, little one, soon you will learn to trust Gamin. But for now, awaken, we have arrived."

Val stirred as her surroundings returned to familiar sights of Sanguine. The dark clouds gave her back her bearings as they swirled in the lightless sky. She had reverted back into human form while she was unconscious. She felt the wet, soft, moss-covered ground she was lying on. But most importantly were the pairs of eyes she perceived that were staring down at her. She shakily stood up even as her left leg constantly twitched in some sort of seizure. In her right hand, she clutched the Reaver with a death-grip.

Once she was finally back on her own two feet, she looked straight into the eyes of her "friends". Kim cheerfully extended her right hand to Val, which Val nonchalantly accepted. Kim helped Val stand up and hugged her tightly.

"Sister, you're back." Kim was practically jumping with joy.

"Nice to see you too," Val replied blankly.

"Val, are you okay? You seem a little off," Yrouna asked worriedly.

Val's face was unmoving as stone. She shrugged Kim off her, breaking the embrace. Her eyes held no emotion. There was something both fierce and tranquil inside her that she couldn't explain. Something in her finally snapped. All those years of lies and illusions ultimately allowed her to see through the guise they had thrown upon her. Her eyes grew dark again Eidolon she summoned her powers upon those she once called her friends.

Swifter than darkness, Valwique had her head in her hands, trying to block out that incessant bombardment in her head. She dropped the Reaver Blade in anguish. Eidolon still possessed her body and was now somehow unleashing her powers of Dark Matter upon her friends.

Against her will, translucent rays of energy shot into their hearts, which quickly spread to the rest of their bodies. Kim clutched at her breast and immediately crumpled on the ground. Yrouna brought her hands up to her neck and began to make a choking noise before falling down on her knees. Blue pulsating beams of energy shot from her fingers, so crooked and twisted they looked like claws. Surprisingly, Jack was left singularly unaffected.

Eidolon was practically milking Val dry of all her power, pouring it ceaselessly into their vulnerable half-vampiric forms. Unable to contain herself any longer, Val broke out like a wild animal. "Traitors!" she shouted at them. "You tricked me. You lied to me. After all these years I've trusted you. I've shown you all my secrets while yours have never even seen the light of day. What's worse is that you have the nerve to drag Ella into this. All she's ever done is play little mind games with me, which I always simply fall for. I knew that dream I had was trying to tell me something and she had to go disillusion me with that "twisted perception" junk. Why? Just tell me why and save yourselves."

Val intensified her mental grip on them as she pressed them for answers. But Kim simply had to look into her eyes and see that it was just an act. Since she tired of Val's pointless antics, she spoke in a soft calm voice, "Val, we know you never had the heart to kill anyone, especially us." She looked deeply into Val's hardened yet pretentious gaze. She could not read minds but she knew Val well enough to know Val could never hurt them, even if they truly were Vampires.

Jack remained peculiarly silent.

Getting the drift, Yrouna implored Val to cease her deluded assault. She was the one closest to Val and thus knew that the bond they shared was stronger than any racial barrier that could ever come between them. "Sister," she pleaded, "Stop being so damn prejudiced! You're such a racist! It doesn't matter if we were all Vampires. We're still your friends."

Val released them all from her suffocating grip. When Yrouna called Val her "Sister", then it was undeniable that Yrouna meant every word of it. In any case, they were right. She couldn't kill them, even if she really wanted to. In a sense, they were all "Sisters" of the same Coven. Nothing could ever undo that.

Val was overcome with guilt. She could only look at the cold, hard ground in silence. "I'm sorry", she said in barely a whisper. "I don't know what came over me. Let there be no more secrets between us." _'Why did you do that?'_ she mentally asked Eidolon.

'_A little force of will is required to find that which is hidden. They may be your friends now, Child, but sooner or later, you will have to forsake them.' _

"Well, in that case," Yrouna responded, breaking Val away from her mental conversation. "Remember when I told you I wasn't a Vampire? That was only half-true. I'm part vampire. I mean… I **was** a were-cat. I died and was saved. It was Malthus who resurrected me. So I'm a hybrid." Yrouna attempted to impart everything to Val at such a fast pace that the only words Val caught were "part Vampire" and "hybrid".

"You lucky cat, I did suspect that, actually," came Val's reply. "And you never told me this because?"

"I swear. I was going to tell you when you'd Come of Age." Yrouna pleaded.

"We can talk about it later. Now is not the time. Anyone else have anything to say?" Val simply shrugged off that last comment.

"Hey, don't look at me. I'm not even undead." Jack exclaimed, hands up with her palms open in defense.

Kim was silent all this time. She seemed to pay no attention to them, only to a pair of gleaming white eyes that stared back at her, the eyes that were connected to that blue shell of spectral substance. Both of them were locked in some sort of silent mental conversation.

'_Release me at once you fool. Kain must be stopped!' _

'_No, you are the fool. Stop struggling, wraith. My spectral binds have held forces bigger than you'_

'_Then what must I do so that you may release me?'_

'_That is still to be decided but I require your cooperation'_

"Kim?" came Val's intruding voice.

Kim turned around with an anxious look on her face. As reckless and immature as she sometimes was, she commanded a certain amount of respect from the other Coven members. She could be serious when need be and being "The Great Leader Maddie", Kim felt that it would be mainly her responsibility if something happened for she knew the consequences of unleashing ghastly demons amongst the ignorant masses. She alone knew that something had to be done with this "Raziel" or else. And that also included this "Kain" as well. He may have been a Vampire but he was unlike any Vampire she had ever encountered. There was something more than unearthly his appearance and especially his aura. In fact, he seemed even more demonic than Gamin himself, who was a true demon.

Kim took a deep breath and spoke as clearly as possible so that they would all understand the urgency of the situation. "We have to do something about those two creatures that were just unleashed tonight. One is with us, one is not. For now, we must decide on what to do with this one," she pointed at Raziel. "He seems intent on finding the green demonic Vampire unleashed earlier. However, for the good of all Sanguine, we cannot let him to just roam the streets looking for him. People will die. I'm sure of it."

A moment of silence passed between the Coven members. All eyes looked from one to another and then finally at Raziel. He, too, had been silent. He was carefully considering his situation and trying to figure out a way to find Kain and kill him. After that, he knew not. Only that he would leave all the rest to fate. He didn't care what happened after Kain had been annihilated from all existence.

At last Jack finally decided to interrupt the unnerving silence. "Can't we just send him back to his own dimension? Then we could just hunt down the other guy and send him back as well."

To the others, it seemed like a sensible idea. If you couldn't deal with the problem, send it back to where it came from. However, Raziel violently protested. "No! I am the only one capable of smiting down Kain. If you send me back to Nosgoth and leave him here, you wouldn't stand a chance. I would wager even now, at this very moment, he would have already spilled some blood."

Out of sheer curiosity, Yrouna blurted out what she thought was the connection. "Kain… Cain? Hmmm… This is too much of a coincidence. Two vampires with the same name?"

Kim's reply was swift, "Oh come now, Yrouna, Cain can be a common enough name. It's more of a title than a name. It means 'The First Killer' or 'The First Murderer'. Besides, isn't 'Cain' just Tiberius' surname or title? But that's not the point. We made this mess; we have to clean it up. How about a compromise?" At this point, Kim faced Raziel representing the voice of the entire Coven, "What would you say if we let you go provided that you don't hurt us or anyone else, except the other Vampires, and we keep an eye on you while we're at it?"

Raziel intensified his already luminous gaze at The Great Leader. Ever the rhetorican, he sharply replied, "And what makes you think that I would accept such an offhand proposal, and one made by children at that? And I would allow you to follow me like dogs? And what if I attempted to elude you, what would you do, detain me? Do you take me for a simpleton?"

One unified thought resounded in the Coven member's heads. _**'This guy talks too much.'**_

"Perhaps I could bribe you into accepting the offer," the Shadow Wolf said. "I know how you looked like before. What would you say if I returned you to your former self?"

Raziel's attention immediately jumped to the Shadow Wolf. An interesting bargain it would be. How could one pass up a chance such as this? But of course Raziel still had his doubts. He cocked his head sideways in disbelief. "Am I to believe you can work such complex magic to restore me as I was before the abyss? Hah! I believe you only pretend to possess such powers!"

"Well then, **I'll give you reason not to doubt me**." The tone was not inherent of Val, though they were her words. As she said this, she took up the Reaver and presented it to the astonished Wraith.

"The Soul Reaver! How is it possible? You should be dead by now! Kain has not let anyone else as much as touch the Reaver for the entire duration of his empire. How could a mere child such as yourself come to possess it?"

"Do you still doubt me then? Do you remain skeptical of my powers?" Val locked eyes with Raziel though he did not reply.

She tore her gaze away from the Wraith and faced the Great Leader Maddie. "Release him!" She commanded.

"What?" Kim asked in disbelief. Did she just give an order to her superior?

"I said release him!" Val nearly shouted as she pointed the serpentine blade at the Great Leader Maddie, simultaneously willing her to taste the clash of metal upon her spine. Val was sorely abusing her newfound knowledge of their half-vampiric heritage. Not only was it getting on Kim's nerves, it was downright disrespectful.

Kim grudgingly waved her hand on Raziel, saying the words "Malaya Kana." Raziel was immediately released from the invisible fetters.

The Shadow Wolf walked up to Raziel, feeling not the least bit intimidated. Ever so slowly, she knelt before him and offered the Reaver hilt first as a token of confidence. At this she spoke, "Raziel, I know perfectly well that I am not nearly worthy enough to handle the Reaver. That is why you must take it. You alone can wield it. You alone can destroy Kain. Do not let it return to his treacherous claws."

"Then you needn't worry, Wolf," Raziel swiftly replied, taking the Reaver in hand. "The next time Kain will ever catch a glimpse of this weapon again is when I skewer it through his accursed heart."

"So do we have a deal then? I know you'd want to have your wings back and all we ask in return is your cooperation."

The Shadow Wolf's reasoning was satisfactory enough, at least for now. Raziel considered his decision carefully. What had he to lose if he went along with their little scheme? He would regain his long-lost evolutionary gift and at the price of what? A group of children tagging along as he went in search of Kain? As long as they did not interfere the moment he would be sighted. That was all that mattered.

"Very well, I accept your proposal. But we shall discuss my terms in this agreement."

"What else do you want?" Kim asked, the question teeming with suspicion.

"Firstly, I will not be obliged to follow your orders. Secondly, when I find Kain, you are not to step in my way. Thirdly, you will not question my actions if it is necessary to make a few sacrifices. Lastly, if you do not wish me to kill any humans, keep in mind that I will constantly require sustenance. I feed on souls and if you are kind enough to allow me a sip of yours, then all will be well. I have no intentions of consuming your souls whole, so you need not worry. I only require an occasional part of it, which will restore itself as time passes."

"We agree to your terms, Raziel," Kim began. "But now, please, you must come with us. It is nearly sunrise. We do not command you but we implore you. You must trust us in this. I am sorry for my behavior earlier on and I sincerely apologize for it. But if you cannot trust me, then at least trust the others."

"Ugh! If I am unable to trust you, you who shackled me upon mere account of my appearance, I am expected to trust one who soiled the last remaining reminder I possessed of a family I once had and not to mention a sadistic psychopath? And what could inspire more suspicion than that radical fanatic?" He pointed at Jack. "She appears to be a little too convenient, considering the situation."

Val retorted, "You do want your wings don't you? And I am no psychopath, I'm a healer." Denial, it was, in its bluntest form. "By the way, what happened to that scarf around your neck?" Val inquired as she gazed down, enthralled, at Raziel's empty gullet with her typical perverse fascination.

"That insolent creature stripped off and defiled my cowl with her own disgorged chyme," Raziel admonished, pointing his index claw finger at Yrouna.

Yrouna could not hide her embarrassment. She gave Raziel a sheepish smile and slowly made her way to a rock where she had left Raziel's soiled cowl. She quickly snatched it by a somewhat uncontaminated corner, trying to make as little contact as possible. With evident disdain, she handed it to Raziel with a squeamish look on her face. Yrouna kept the befouled piece of cloth away from her as much as she possibly could and dangled it in front of Raziel's impatient face. At least, it looked impatient, but with Raziel, who could tell?

In any case, to Yrouna, it seemed that Raziel cocked one eyebrow, if he even had one, and gave a puzzled look. If Yrouna could read Raziel's mind, she would have know that Raziel enjoyed receiving back his sullied cowl just as much as seeing it taken away and sullied in the first place. Thankfully, though she could not read his mind, she could at least read the expression in his eyes. "Oh, alright! Alright! Sorrrrrrrrry! I'll clean it up first." She didn't even sound the least bit apologetic and instead, regretful that she was now obligated to wash a complete stranger's only piece of clothing.

Despite all commotion, Jack took it up to herself to become a voice of reason. This situation was getting far too absurd. "My Lord, please. I mean you no ill intent. I beseech you to trust me, trust us. It is for the best."

"Very well," Raziel replied, though his patience was evidently growing thin.

But as the sun began to creep over the horizon, The Great Leader Maddie inevitably found that they were in a new dilemma. If they all went home to their respective houses, who would keep watch on Raziel? Surely, they couldn't let him stay outside. No doubt, in less than three seconds flat, he would have already broken their agreement. Kim looked around as though searching for an answer, probably one that would drop down from the sky. She asked out mentally, "So what happens to Raziel now? It's not like I can keep him in my house. My parents would disown me if I took him in. I am sorry. A devourer of souls has no place in my home." Her friends heard her query. Raziel, however, did not.

In response to this, Jack answered, "As much as I wish to play host to him, my decrepit neighborhood is not worthy enough to be graced by his presence. Know this: if I were to take him in, blood will be spilt and that would not be a desirable option."

Val looked at Kim in the eye and replied as if stating a fact of life, "I'm the resident orphan here. I have no home. I stay with Yrouna."

Yrouna folded her arms in defense and also let her mind speak out for her, "We do, however, have a sanctuary. We could take him back to the Wolf Shrine."

If only Val wasn't speaking telepathically, she would have slapped herself on the forehead. "Of course, it's perfect! It's far away from humans and this world's technology. Not to mention, if he tried to escape, the Wolf Guardians would detain him."

A normal conversation, at that length, would have taken around a couple minutes. But since nothing else was faster than the speed of the mind, a mental conversation would only last for a few seconds. This kept Raziel from suspecting anything more that the unusual.

"Come. Let us depart while the sun is low." Val motioned to the others. Truth be told, the members of the Coven did not take their Sister's newfound authority and arrogance too well. They feared her short detour to Nosoth may have marred her spirit in one way or another. Nonetheless, they would play along for now. Hopefully, her madness would dissipate in time.

In silence, the five beings of unique sorts trudged from the outskirts of the derelict city of Sanguine to the boundaries of the last protected natural habitat, Mt. Ilumine. They took a hiking path travelers often used, marked by the dried grass, general lack of vegetation and bits of garbage and leftovers strewn about here and there. It was not long before they reached a vandalized sign that said: **"Thank you for visiting Sanguine! Come again soon!"** Behind it, it read: **"Welcome to Sanguine City. Population: 5 million."** Underneath it, in black spray painted letters it said: **"Hell's Next Door Neighbor. Vampire population: 749… and counting" **

Raziel only glanced at it, wondering what problematic situation he had just inevitably gotten himself into. However, while Raziel pondered such questions, he noticed that the others had stopped and that the Shadow Wolf was nowhere to be seen. With his supernatural senses, he scanned the surrounding area. There were a few tall trees, no more than around seven to ten feet in height, atop a hillock ahead of them. From one of the trees, they heard an agonized shout and cry for help; the usual, no more and no less. Yrouna unsheathed her metal Arnis sticks, just in case trouble would somehow arise. It normally did.

All eyes turned to the source of the cacophony and sure enough a Vampire lay prostrate on the cold, filthy ground, while way up on the hillock, Val gazed down, like a predator observing its prey. In the blink of an eye, she was right next to the Vampire, ready to pounce.

The Vampire was just a fledgling, very weak and only around a few months old, perhaps a year at the most. He seemed like a man in his mid-thirties. He had short hair and had sort of a stocky build. He wore black pants and a white shirt and a blue jacket. Val had clearly remembered this person from sometime before and by the look of the Vampire's eyes, he seemed to recall an encounter with the Shadow Wolf as well. The Vampire shakily got up and looked up in fear at Val.

"Well, well, if it isn't Zames. Good morning, Father. How nice of you to drop by." Val greeted the Vampire in the yuppiest and most cheerfully sarcastic tone she could ever do.

Zames pathetically tried to escape by attempting to crawl off into a dark corner only to be dragged back by his feet.

"Now, where are you going to in such a hurry, Father? Why don't you stay and have a chat? The sun is up and rising. I'm sure a good man like you would love to see the sunrise and know what a beautiful and perfect day it is. Perfect, that is, for me." With that, Val focused her energy into a pronged whip with seven tails. Though Zames could not see the whip, he could very well feel it. He could feel that each of the tails had three-inch long spike tips that dug deep into his skin each time they hit. Whenever Val pulled the whip back after hitting him, chunks of his flesh came flying out. And as with all Shadow Wolf inflicted wounds, the lacerations did not heal.

Val then turned her pronged whip into two single whips on each hand. She positioned herself in front of the Vampire and began to execute the Rodonda upon him. She slashed at him in a sideways eight figure or more appropriately, the infinity symbol, the Mobius Strip. When she was satisfied that he had had enough, she wound one of the whips on Zames' neck and chest and pressed him on a nearby tree.

She whispered into his ear her parting words, making sure to put emphasis on every syllable, **"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned."**

Then she did something that shocked her friends, something that they had never seen her do. She bit down hard into his neck and ripped it open. She chewed on the bit of flesh and swallowed it. Then she took another bite and swallowed it whole, then another, and another, and another… She seemed to be devouring the whole carcass, well some of it anyway. As she consumed the trembling half-dead corpse, yes, it was not yet fully dead, she remembered all those endless hours in Mass when she heard, not listened, to Zames up in the Altar preaching about the goodness of all men.

'_Heretic',_ she thought.

All those holy verses, the professions of faith, the blessings, the confessions and worst of all, the gospels and homilies that only said one thing: God loves us no matter who or what we are. All of them shattered, made useless and profaned. He, Zames, the most humble servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ submit to the will of Satan himself; why it was simply preposterous. It should be the next big scandal of the Church; what else could be said for it already had many. What more if there were a conspiracy done to hide it? The biggest canker of the modern Catholic Church it would be if a whole Order were infected. From now on, Val would make sure to keep an eye out during Mass.

When Val was done, Zames was missing both ears, both arms and one of his feet and his neck was torn wide open. But somehow, he was alive. His Vampiric blood probably did the trick. Val was soaked in that very blood. Her hands, her face, her clothes were all stained with it.

Slowly, she backed away from near-dead cadaver. Her gloved hands, with her twisted little fingers, rose up to her head. She was hysterical after the feeding, as with all undead who satisfy the craving. As the Vampires had "The Thirst", the Were-creatures had "The Hunger," _**so it was said.**_

"Oh My God! What have I done? What have I done?" at first Val whispered it to herself over and over again. Before long, however, she was screaming like a lunatic. Oh, the ecstasy! The blood of the impure contaminating a pure being. Was she still pure? Ah, who cares? She would still be purified somehow. She would find a way; the day she would Come of Age, that could be it. But no that was also what she feared.

She could have gone on with her deranged dancing in the forest, spreading her infectious madness as she passed by, if it were not for her friends. Kim threw a bolt of energy at her, the way Kain did. Fortunately, it did the trick. She was jolted out of her insanity and whimpered at her pitiful self when she realized the futility of it all. She regained her composure as they continued on their way, but kept herself hidden in the shadows. As they walked on, she kept glancing back at the poor mutilated creature. If it got blood in time, it could still recover. But it would still be a cripple. Perhaps, in a few centuries or a millennium or so, it would restore its missing limbs, if it would live that long.

Val ambled along at the back of the procession, with that blank stare in her face, one that said "pretty please" no matter how you looked at it. She tried to keep up with the others but she found her movements sluggish and uncoordinated.

Jack slowed down her pace to keep in line with her. "Who was that guy?" she asked.

"If you ever went to mass," she absentmindedly replied, "you would know that he was Zames, the local parish priest."

Several minutes passed before they finally reached a fork in the pathway. One path led all the way up Mt. Ilumine, eventually reaching the Wolf Shrine. The other path led to Kim's Clan Ghetto, as they called it.

"Well, this is my stop. I wish you the best of luck!" Kim waved as she started in the direction of the path.

"You're not coming with us?" Yrouna hollered.

"Sorry, I've got a curfew!"

"A curfew? But it's 5 AM!"

"I know but rules are rules. Bye!" And with that, Kim disappeared as she moved behind the bend.

As soon as Kim was gone, the four creatures wasted no time in journeying up the mountain. Jack even shifted into a raven to reach their destination faster. Yrouna also turned into a cat and climbed atop Val's lupine form. Raziel sprinted alongside. Within a few minutes, the lush, green, sylvan forest gave way to a vast field of red and white petals. They were all completely surrounded by roses and their protective thorn bushes. At one point it almost looked like a maze, with all its tall hedges and twists and turns. But eventually, they reached the main path, a road wide enough for a vehicle to pass through. It led them straight to the Shrine.

Next to the field of roses, Raziel first noticed a mural by the entrance. It was old and cracked but the image was still visible. It was a picture of a man and a woman. The man had a crown of thorns upon his head and more thorns surrounded his flaming heart. The woman was lovely beyond compare and had roses strung around her fiery heart. For now, Raziel did not know the meaning of this illustration. He moved closer to the crystal wall where the mural was emblazoned upon but as he looked behind, it seemed that Jack could not progress a step further.

Jack was utterly petrified. The sight of the mural had left her in a catatonic state. There was great fear imminent in her eyes. "Evil!" she whispered. "This place is evil! I'm sorry. I… I can't go in there." She shouted to her friends.

Val was having none of this. She wanted to enter the sanctuary as soon as possible, even if it meant without Jack. She took a deep breath and blurted out, "Quit it, Jack! This place isn't evil. It's deadly to full Vampires who come anywhere within a full kilometer of it but that doesn't make it evil. And you don't have to go if you don't want to. If you knew we were going to the Wolf Shrine, why did you come with us?"

"Because I dared myself to get as close as I could within the Shrine's boundaries and live."

The ever impatient Yrouna, still holding Raziel's filthy "rag", was aching to get in and wash the vomit off, just to get it over with. The fact was, the stench of her own undigested upchuck was making her even more nauseous with each moment that passed. She was afraid she might have to once again heave upon the poor, pitiful piece of cloth she had already once used as a barfbag. Her face was visibly turning a sickly shade of green when she shouted to Jack, "You can go teleport home if you want to. I just want to go in and use the bathroom. I think I'm going to be sick again."

"Fine then, I will. Bye!" As soon as she spoke this, Jack locked her arms together, chanted her destination and disappeared in a twinkling.

With that done, Val turned to face a seemingly impenetrable wall of glass and crystal. There was no visible opening but she was sure that this was the entrance.

"Avierta!" she commanded the translucent barrier. At the utterance of this single word, the crystalline partition began to crack. Shards of diamond and glass flew out and hovered in every direction. Soon, enough of the wall had been dislocated enough to form a small aperture just the right size to let the three beings pass through one at a time. They quickly entered in single file. As soon as they were inside, the pieces of glass returned to their original location in the wall, closing the gap seamlessly.

Though Raziel knew that he could easily get past that wall again if need be for the walls were not that high, he felt as though he was inevitably caught in this current situation and that as the moment he had stepped into the place, there was no turning back. Perhaps now, now that Raziel had sided, albeit momentarily, with the Shadow Wolves, the Prophecy would finally be fulfilled.

A/N: Egads! 12 pages! That's my greatest record so far.


	11. Chapter 11

Kildiazar: I own everything that has my name on it.

Kain: KILD! I have a bone to pick with you. How dare you use indelible ink on my Reaver!

Kain walks in brandishing the Soul Reaver, which now has a printed-on sign on the hilt saying "MADE IN CHINA." Without hesitation, Kild whacks a stamp on Kain's forehead. It says "Property of The Unwanted Ghost."

Kild: Don't worry. It isn't indelible. You only have to wash it off with running water. :D

Suddenly, a large post-it tree walks by.

Raziel: (to Kain) Be glad you only got the stamp.

**Chapter 11**: Of Dreams and Lightmares once more

"Yo, Dudley! Waz'up? It's TC. We gotta talk. I've got a major situation here."

"Yo, Nero! What can I do for you at this time of day? Aren't you going to sleep or something? Could I interest you in some generic RC Sedaril? It's guaranteed to put you to sleep and take away those awful lightmares that occasionally plague all Vampires! Or perhaps what you need is Guayabano Special Relief Heal Herb. It alleviates wounds and muscle pains for the low, low price of only 9.95 Guines!"

"Shut up, Dudley! And don't call me Nero! You know why I called. I don't want any of your drugs! We have to talk, in person."

"Kain is there with you now isn't he? And now, you're wondering about Raziel?"

"Yes and yes! Now, when can we talk? It's urgent."

"Oh, I know it's urgent, more than you can imagine. Well, let's see. I am available tonight. Meet me at Club O2 at 6 PM _**sharp**_."

"Thanks. I'll be there."

Tiberius Cain put his Nokia N-90 cell phone back into his pocket. He had just spoken with the only human who, as of right now, could help him in solving the mystery of Kain's inexplicable appearance in this world, that nagging feeling that Raziel was calling out to him, and not to mention the intuition he felt that Gamin had been released. He had never been wrong about these things before. But now, he wished as though he had made a great mistake in thinking such things.

Tiberius turned to return to the Master coffin-room at the heart of his mansion. It was about 5 AM and the first rays of sunlight signaled bedtime for all Vampires, except the insomniacs. The heavy pull of daily slumber was already upon him. Already, his senses had begun to dim. Even the world around him seemed to swirl obscurely. The carpet, the tapestries, the walls and all other vibrantly colored ornaments began to blend together as though in a watercolor painting.

'_But wait a minute!'_ Tiberius thought for a moment. This was unnatural. Even if he were at the very brink of consciousness and only moments away from being dead to the world, he could still at least see the outlines of his surroundings distinctly.

His thoughts, however, were abruptly disturbed when an invisible being struck him from behind. Whatever it was, it was sharp and had pointed tips like a several-pronged whip or a massive spiked claw. He could feel it driving into his skin and scraping the flesh away. He let out an ear splitting cry of agony. What confound all the more was that his own voice seemed to bounce of the walls and attack him. His acute sense of hearing only served to heighten his vulnerability. The more he screamed, the more the sound retaliated.

Subsequently, the invisible being dealt another blow. This time it was to his chest. Tiberius dropped to his knees and let out another groan of pain. He folded his wings around himself in defense. From within this shell, Tiberius looked around for his attacker. But none could be found. He was alone in the hallway and his only companions were the furniture and other inanimate objects that could not possibly have assaulted him.

He stopped his pointless cacophony. The more noise he made, the more he was harmed by his own voice. He listened intently for any sign of his mysterious assailant. Nothing. There was no indication that there had ever been anyone else. Whatever it was, it left no trace of a scent.

The Vampire was completely baffled. However, just as inexplicably as the entity vanished, it reappeared. Tiberius heard a thousand demonic voices simultaneously laughing at his pitiful defense. It was Gamin's voice amplified a thousand-fold. Tiberius tried to shut out the unrelenting reverberation but to no avail.

"Go away, Demon! Go away! You are not welcome here!" he shouted at the empty hallway.

The cruel laughter did not cease. In fact, the Vampire's rage only served to please the Demon even more. He spoke in a satisfied manner. "What have you done to the Master's Pet, my son? Where are my loyal Dogs?"

Tiberius tired of the Demon's foolish mind game. Did he always have to play along? "The Shadow Wolves are no more, Gamin. I took care of them. And if I am not mistaken, the one who summoned you is the last one in existence."

There was no change in Gamin's tone. He seemed to already aware of this fact. "I sent the little one off to another dimension to retrieve an object of desire. I suppose I should bring her back. She is all that remains of my collection, after all. I wouldn't want to waste a favorite."

"Don't toy with me, Gamin!" the Vampire snapped back. "What is it you want?"

Gamin presented his entire being now. No longer hiding in the shadows, Gamin unveiled his wings to show that he was not clothed in the old faded vest he wore during his supposed eternal slumber. Now, he was sported garments of the modern world, clothes of this era. He was clad in a seductive, black, see-through shirt. From within peeked the Demon's immaculate abdomen. Flesh hard as rock and without that marble paleness most Vampires possessed.

Tiberius' eyes narrowed at this sight. He was utterly disgusted by this defilement. A sense of long forgotten hatred was reawakened in his heart. "You fiend!" he shouted. "You've been rummaging in my closet, haven't you?"

"I needed a change in my appearance. A millennium has passed and you expect me to walk this earth clothed in those prehistoric rags? Besides, you will not need your clothes for very long. Your death is at hand, my son. I will allow you to live for a short amount of time. But only so that you may say farewell to this world and all else you love."

"What are you saying?"

"_A swift demise by Scorpion's Bite_

_Behold the Demon's awesome might_"

Gamin chanted in an ominous tone. He spread out his red blazing wings and folded them unto himself. As he enveloped his divine being in an impenetrable cocoon, Gamin appeared to shrink and morph his body. Suddenly, several insect-like appendages sprung out from what could have been his back. A pair of sharp claw-like pincers and a deadly stinger tail also manifested to complete the demonic atrocity.

The transformation was done and before Tiberius, stood a gigantic crimson red scorpion with its stinger poised at the ready. The scorpion swiftly scuttled over to Tiberius, snapping its pincers menacingly.

But the Vampire was not caught off guard. In one rapid movement, he impaled the scorpion with the bone spike at the tip of his magnificent wing. The point of his right wing was now embedded in the wooden floor of the hallway.

A grim smirk of satisfaction formed on his lips as a pool of scarlet liquid began to stain the expensive Persian carpet. But the smile abruptly melted into a look of downright fear and horror at the sound of a weak, breathless whisper.

"_**Daddy!"**_

He could hardly hear the voice. No doubt, a human probably wouldn't be able to hear it. It had the tone of a dying creature, susceptible and begging for mercy. The voice was so faint, so familiar. A sudden sensation of shock and alarming disbelief swallowed him as he realized who it was.

But Gamin was not done with him yet. He murmured another verse of warning into Tiberius ear.

"_Ash to ash and dust to dust_

_Into the heart, the fatal thrust"_

The dying scorpion writhed in pain just a little more before it expired, disintegrating into dust. Only then were the Vampire's fears truly confirmed. As the dust of the deceased scorpion cleared away, he now saw what it was he had actually skewered with his mighty wing.

Gamin; the scorpion; they were never there. It had all been a very convincing illusion. What he saw now was a most traumatic sight, for what kind of father would not be devastated to witness his son that now lay dying in his arms. And Tiberius saw the truth in Gamin's sinister words. Indeed, he had pierced his son right through the heart. Withdrawing his wing now, would ultimately mean death to his beloved Child.

'_Curse that Gamin!'_ Tiberius thought instantly with such hatred. _'Why that good-for-nothing son of a … I can accept being informed of my own inevitable demise. But to remain alive only to witness everyone I love put to death – and by my own hands at that – it's simply lunacy.' _

Tears began to well in his eyes. _'Please, not again!'_ he pleaded in silence to TJ's languished form. He would not let his son die by his hands because he succumbed to momentary madness, just as he had done before. At a certain point in his life, centuries ago, he had unwittingly slain all of his children. Being driven near to the edge of insanity, he had no conscious knowledge of this. He had lost so many of his children that way and when he came back to his senses, it was too late.

His son's own eyes only mirrored his emotion and even seemed to intensify it. But the dying embers in TJ's eyes refused to be extinguished. In one last desperate bid for life, Tiberius bit open the ulner artery on his right wrist and pressed it to TJ's open and gasping mouth. Precious, life giving blood trickled down the bleeding hand and into his begging lips.

TJ was nearing the state of Vampiric shock. It was like a full shutdown of a Vampire's unnatural body. He would soon lose consciousness and his body would lock in a rigid position as his fatal wound would attempt to heal itself. When a Vampire entered this cataleptic state of recuperation, it nigh crossed the line between unlife and absolute death, so much that it could already be mistaken to be already dead by most.

TJ feebly licked at his Father's blood. He could still feel excruciating pain in the place where his heart was. But he could also feel it slowly, very slowly restoring itself. He could hardly keep his eyes open in his agony. His unfocused eyes could only make out an intense promising light far away, directly above him. The tunnel! With all his will, he strained to look away and keep his gaze only at his Father. He smiled and TJ feebly smiled back. Inevitably, the darkness overcame his sight and he rested his weary head upon his Father's comforting claw. His resolve to live was strong. But now there was nothing else to do but leave it all to fate.

Drops of Tiberius' tears fell down on his son's face. He was openly weeping in silence now. He feared to lose his favorite son, though he felt somewhat reassured when he felt the vulnerable flesh strain to repair the damage with his blood. Tiberius was so caught up in his despair that he did not even notice his wife, Severina, gently soothing and comforting both her son and husband. The Vampire Lord only became aware of her presence when he leaned his head to her supportive shoulder.

Severina was no healer but she knew the measures of basic first aid ever since her past life. Her skilled claws carefully moved to her husband's wing and expertly pulled it out. Tiberius took out his clean satin handkerchief and Severina used it as a makeshift bandage to keep the blood from flowing out too much. And together, they fused their Pranic energy into their Child's near-lifeless form. This magic-based form of energy would easily quicken the recovery of an injured Vampire. All this was done in silent understanding, for they were both well versed in these procedures. Together, they gently took up TJ and set their beloved son into his own little coffin.

Before leaving his son to sleep, Tiberius gazed thoughtfully upon TJ's fragile form. The incident that had just occurred served as a reminder of just who and what he was. Humans, Shadow Wolves and even Vampires alike thought of him as a bloodthirsty murderer. It was nearly accepted as a fact by all. Who wouldn't when all his nefarious deeds were written all over the old scrolls and history books? However, those who knew him personally knew that he was far from the malicious tyrant he once was. He had indeed changed over the centuries, becoming a far gentler soul, who believed that the main purpose of Vampires was not to plague the universe but to facilitate its healing. He had long ago lost the urge to hunt and thus created a drink that would spare other Vampires from the act of taking life if they too so detested it.

Lost in his pensive musings, with Severina patiently and silently waiting by his side, Tiberius seemed to have lost track of time. He was surprised, in fact, when he looked up at the clock and saw that it was already 7 AM. He had let two whole hours pass by. It even took him a while to realize just how exhausted he had become.

Severina grew increasingly worried. She could see the stress and fatigue written all over Tiberius' face, so she put her arms around her husband and drew him to a tight embrace. "We have to go to sleep now, Candy. It's getting early. TJ will be fine, you'll see. The Pranic energy will do its job. I'm sure of it." Her voice so comforting, like that of a playful angel.

Tiberius gave into Severina's "tender" embrace. He had already begun to have trouble keeping awake as the minutes passed. Without wasting a second longer, they both kissed TJ good morning and soundlessly crept away.

Tiberius fell into Severina's guiding hands as she lovingly led the way to the coffin-room at the heart of their mansion. Soon they reached that particular room. It had no windows and only one entrance; the perfect lair for a Vampire to sleep in. Or in this case, it was the perfect lair for two Vampires to sleep in, for instead of the usual coffin, it was especially built to accommodate two Vampires. It was twice as large as a regular coffin, yet it still retained the proportions of a regular hexagonal coffin.

Both Vampires slipped into their sleepwear. For Severina, it was a white silken nightgown and for Tiberius, it was a black cotton robe with gold edges and a strange insignia on the back.

Morning came and blackness overcame them. They slept with their bodies pressed tightly against each other despite the capacious size of their casket. The odd thing was, though Tiberius showed more signs of lethargy than Severina did, Severina fell asleep in a few moments, while Tiberius tossed and turned in his evidently troubled sleep.

In his slumber, Tiberius' mind was unsettled due to the recent series of dreams he'd been having. Sometimes, he had dreamless sleeps. But most of the time he had what Vampires called "lightmares"; nightmares that occurred during the daytime, when most Vampires slept. His "lightmares" normally consisted of someone torturing him, no doubt caused by a certain Shadow Wolf who tormented his kin. Today was seemingly no different from any other day.

Tiberius felt bound to the earth by invisible shackles; his sight completely shrouded by a peculiar miasma. Though he could not see, he perceived Val's spiritual presence in close proximity. The Wolf's intimidating glare was the only thing that broke through the haze. Crystal blue eyes darted to and fro, shifting here and there, encircling him. What was she planning to do? Before the Vampire even knew it, the invisible shackles that restrained him began to yank his limbs away from his body. With all his might, he fought to pull them back. As though in response to this, the unseen shackles snapped back onto him, like several tensed rubber bands.

Tiberius took this instant of momentary freedom to lunge at the luminous eyes. He grabbed the Wolf's dream avatar by the neck and plunged his bared fangs into the thick, luscious piece of flesh. Immediately, he felt himself being sucked into the Shadow Wolf's body, and more importantly her mind. This was a unique thing he could do with only Val and Val alone; the result of an enchantment cast upon her since her rebirth. He could not share dreams even with his own wife, Severina. Neither was he able to invade the dreams of his own children or even regular mortals. If he could, female teenagers would practically be falling in line to invite him into their dreams. And Severina wouldn't like that now, would she?

The scenery around Tiberius seemed to shift to a new terrain altogether. He found himself on a barren mountain. It appeared to be possibly Mount Illumine, only it was devoid of all life and vegetation. The sun was not out, leaving only a dim, purple sky above. Tiberius flapped his wings and rose up into this purple firmament. He then looked down and surveyed his surroundings for anything of interest that was happening in this dream.

Sure enough, he soon found what he was looking for. From his point of view, he saw what looked like a cliché chase scene from a less than B grade horror movie. What kind of dreams did this Shadow Wolf have? While he suffered all the lightmares she had so blithely created, she was fleeing from her friends for the very reason that they were Vampires. Was that all she had to worry about? That damned racist! She always thought too highly of herself. All her true lightmares were always forced on him, most probably without her even knowing it.

Not long after observing this pathetic scene, Tiberius finally found something of true interest. Enter Raziel. There he stood in resplendent glory. His newly evolved wings brandished in the wind, unmarred by the lethal waters of the abyss. And Val had practically - and conveniently - collapsed in front of his flawless body.

If this had not been a dream, Val **should** have been cowering in fear. However, even if it were real, she would still most likely have the audacity to challenge him.

Then it seemed that Raziel was suddenly veiled in darkness. At that instant, Tiberius braced himself for he knew what was about to come. Raziel's tortured screams resounded throughout the entire mountain. Whatever torment and agony Raziel felt; the stripping of his wings, the descent into that acidic whirlpool of despair, churning and burning for hundreds of years; Tiberius experienced it as well.

An eternal second passed and both creatures were released from the dark, suffocating void. Raziel reappeared as the atrociously disfigured wraith, the product of Kain's malice. His cowl hung limply by his shoulder while his empty gullet lay exposed. Tiberius remained unmarred. He was never meant to suffer the abyss. But he felt the pain nonetheless, only because of the blood and soul covenant he formed with Raziel centuries ago.

Tiberius flew up and relocated himself somewhere where Raziel could see him. A little behind the Shadow Wolf, he hovered, beckoning for Raziel to come. Raziel, in turn saw this.

"_**Brother," **_he whispered through his mind.

"_I am here,"_ Tiberius murmured in reply.

Raziel swiftly covered the jawless half of his face with that shabby piece of cloth on his shoulder and did what could only be described as shifting into the Spirit realm in a Dream Realm. He rematerialized just a few feet away from Tiberius, leaving Val helpless at the mercy of her friends.

In an unexpected reunion, the Vampire and the once-Vampire embraced each other, lost in their forgotten memories.

Disclaimer: The usual disclaimer applies. Do I have to keep repeating myself?


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I don't own any references to The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Twilight Zone, Legacy of Kain, Battleon, Harry Potter or Castlevania etc.

I also wish to thank Iana Silmir for motivating me to continue my story.

Lastly, from now on, until I reach a chapter that says otherwise, you may imagine Kain as he was in Blood Omen 2, not that I have played the game.

**Chapter 12:** Time is a terrible thing

The Doppelgangers, as they were called, if that was even the appropriate term for them, embraced each other for old time's sake. It had been several centuries since they last saw their twin selves.

All those centuries ago, when their Covenant was still fresh, they would look at each other and almost see a mirror image in front of them. Now, however, Raziel had been so changed by time and the abyss, that it hardly seemed possible that they once looked so alike.

"I am sorry, Raziel," Tiberius muttered in a most apologetic tone. "I caused all this. I didn't know. I shouldn't have done it."

"No, Tiberius," Raziel assured. "You couldn't have possibly known. It was not entirely your fault. Remember, I was the one who asked for it. I chose to gain the gift and I suffered for it. I never imagined that Kain could be so… invidious."

"No. I don't believe it was jealousy that caused him to act in that manner," responded Tiberius. "I think there was more to it than what we thought it was; than what we all thought it was."

"What are you saying, Tiberius?"

"What I mean is –"

Tiberius never got to finish the sentence. The dream was collapsing in on itself. Both Raziel and Tiberius began to flicker like shadows in the candlelight.

Before Raziel even inquired as to what was happening, Tiberius, being a part of him, already answered his query. "The mental link is unstable," he said. "The dream was never meant to last this long. I will meet you again, soon. I swear."

Raziel was left standing alone, on the edge of oblivion as he watched his "twin" disintegrate into ashes before him. The entire landscape seemed to break apart and be lifted into the heavens before he too disappeared into his own realm.

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Tiberius woke up with a start. His undead heart was pumping furiously. Beads of sweat collected on his forehead. Though he had no need to breathe, he was panting feverishly, a result of old human habits that truly did die hard.

He looked over to the bright digital clock on his side. The Liquid Crystal Display flashed the crimson numerals: 3:00 PM. Why did that accursed hour always have to haunt him? He collected his thoughts and quieted his senses. Very slowly, so as not to wake Severina, he opened the coffin and climbed out. He took a deep breath of air, only to fully awaken him. Nothing seemed to be burning. That was a good sign. Feeling a little reassured, he exhaled and walked out of the coffin-room. It was a good enough time as any to have a little afternoon walk, indoors of course.

He changed his outfit to a comfortable, gray, cotton sweatshirt and matching jogging pants. His usual Goth look would have to wait, for now. And for less hassle, he even strapped his wings together and covered them with an exquisite black leather case, making them look like a sheathed pair of Arnis sticks. He normally did this when he walked amongst humans so that he could pass off as one of them. Just tweak the minds of a few sharp-eyed mortals here and there with his charm and they wouldn't suspect a thing. A pair of rightly sized gloves and custom-made boots covered his cloven hands and feet. He normally didn't put any of this on when he was either at home or at The Underworld nightclub, where mortals were too drunk to care. But now, perhaps he could make an exception. Now that he was properly attired, it was time for a trip to the library, where he had some important business to attend to.

Nothing stirred in the hallways of his entire abode. Apparently, his servants were all still asleep. He always woke up earlier than everyone else. But just to be sure, he mentally scanned his still-as-death mansion, making certain that no unwanted entities lingered about. His eyes saw nothing and his ears heard nothing. That was a very good sign indeed. Perhaps now, he would have some time to concentrate by himself.

For the sake of exercise, he decided to take the long way. Tiberius paced through the endless hallways, turned in a few corners and intersections and entered several hidden doorways. The mansion was a never-ending labyrinth of sorts, with inverted rooms, mirror mazes, mirage rooms and constant dead-ends. But because Tiberius himself created the layout of the mansion, he passed through the warren like a silent spirit passing through walls.

Finally, he reached his destination. Around him were mountains upon mountains of books. Vorador's library looked puny compared to this. The myriad of bookshelves stretching from one wall to the next on several floors was enough to make anyone feel pusillanimous in the largest, not to mention oldest, library in all Sanguine. But Tiberius felt quite at home in his archaic library. The books here were collected over the centuries, dating back to the ancient scrolls of the Shifter's Cult. And indeed those were the very scrolls Tiberius was looking for.

Tiberius flew past the looming bookshelves and headed towards the darker confines of the library. At last, he stopped by a particular bookshelf that seemed as though it hadn't been touched for centuries. He expertly scanned though the numerous titles until he came upon a fake book entitled "Before the Beginning." He pulled it out and put it back again, triggering a switch that slid the bookshelf to the side opening yet another hidden passage.

Taking with him an old torchlight, Tiberius passively entered and treaded the short pathway where no one else, save Severina had ever entered. In fact, Tiberius had hardly even crossed this threshold in the past. He ambled in until he arrived at a large vault. However, the antechamber was only a clever disguise for what lay within. Though the entrance to the vault seemed almost decayed and so worn by time, the vault itself was a jolt back out of the past. It was a state-of-the-art, hermetically sealed safe with reinforced titanium. It was utterly impenetrable that not even dynamite could open it.

Tiberius took off his gloves, punched in the 13-digit code and manually unbolted the lock, an added security feature ensuring that no mortal could ever unlock it. He took a few steps inside and faced a large table full of all sorts of buttons, levers and controls. The lights switched on automatically, temporarily blinding Tiberius since the antechamber was so dark. Above the table of controls, was a glass window that showed the ancient scrolls in considerably mint condition, albeit a bit yellowed by time. They were so old that their glass frames had to be handled with robotic arms and they had to be kept in a pressurized, dehumidified and hermetically sealed atmosphere, otherwise they would crumble into dust.

Tiberius flipped on the main device, which also activated several television screens connected to manually controlled cameras inside the glass chamber. He took control of the robotic arms and adeptly maneuvered them to take out the antique papers, laminated in pure glass. With a flick of a button, the camera zoomed close to the scroll. Silently, he read the contents to himself.

_A thousand years ago, perhaps more, at a time few now remember, all was well with the land. Peace reigned over all creatures and the land was abundant with life. Three Great Races governed Nosgoth._

_Her primary inhabitants were the Humans. They had long since progressed from their primitive ways, forming basic social structures and proving themselves most versatile of the Races. They were capable of independent thought and could adapt well to most situations._

_The secondary inhabitants were the Ancient Vampires, though it is disputed as to which race pre – dated which. Regardless, this Avian race was evidently far more advanced as they dealt with arcane sorceries and were educated in nearly every known art at the time. Their only flaw was that they were all bound, without exception, to their religious belief. Doubters and blasphemers of their One True God, including their own, were met with violent public executions, as an example to all. _

_The tertiary inhabitants were the Werewolves. Fierce and predatory, this union of Man and Wolf dwelled in territorial packs and dabbled in lunar magic. They were strictly carnivorous by nature but highly disciplined, abstaining from human flesh. However, their primal hunger still led them to slaughter countless livestock and cattle and the Humans to label them as pests. Relations between Humans and their Kind were, at most hostile but never did it escalate to an all – out extermination. _

_But a single powerful entity dominated a pedestal above all others. A solitary name could propel fear or hope in the hearts of thousands upon thousands of unquestioning souls. His slightest whisper was enough to send entire nations to war or make them grovel on their knees in submission. Born at the dawn of time, he was Ageless. Demon of Illusions, Silencer of Renegades, Reconciler of Nations and Devourer of Worlds – all names for one being; Gamin._

_And indeed, for a time, all was well with the land._

_Then the Enlightened Ones came fourth and ushered on the First Age of Darkness._

_With their arrival came the Werewolves' mysterious disappearance. It was as though they had vanished from the face of all Nosgoth to be replaced by the Enlightened. (In truth, the Werewolves founded a clandestine citadel at the edge of the world, accessible only by a conduit at the heart of the Lake of the Dead and only during the full moon.)_

_In the Werewolves' absence, a great conflict of will and beliefs occurred. The Enlightened challenged everything the Ancient Vampires stood for, claiming their God to be nothing more than a lie. _

_In essence, the Enlightened had no true evil intentions. They merely spoke the truth but the Ancient Vampires saw them as malignant blasphemers. Humans saw the futility in this divergence and dared not interfere. _

_And thus a bloody battle ensued. Humans fled in terror as both heaven and hell unleashed their most formidable warriors. Verdant lands and pastures were tainted in hellish fusion crimson and pitch. The War seemed Unending and a God laughed silently as It watched on. _

_And so it was both Races foretold the coming of their Champion; A Redeemer and a Destroyer._

_The Elders speak of a condemned Redeemer,_

_An Angel to defend what truly mattered._

_But to be saved by this Unholy Savior,_

_The vice between the Races must be scattered._

_The Angel shall come to deliver this land,_

_From the grasp of a Demonic tormenter_

_Bearing only a flaming sword in hand_

_To unite what has been set asunder_

_He was born of a world not our own_

_And thus, he belongs to no one_

_What trick or deception has he not known?_

_He was created and yet was undone_

_Cast into an abyss of Hell's liquid fire_

_His worth was judged and he was reborn_

_He rose from oblivion to silence his sire_

_Though reduced to an empty yet undying form_

_While many may claim him as an unwitting pawn_

_His will has still defied them all_

_Into his destiny, he was inexorably drawn_

_To rise victorious when others would fall_

That was all that was written. Those were the only clues he had. But it seemed so lacking. How did the War end? What did Gamin do? What of the Pillars of Nosgoth? Surely, there had to be something concerning that. It was probably continued on another page but that crucial page was no doubt lost forever, perhaps even before Tiberius was created. What now?

Tiberius reread the entire scroll over and over again. Raziel's arrival; that was the only explanation he had, but what else? The scroll only told of Raziel's origins. How was he to end the war? What was Kain's part in all this? So many questions, so little time. He had to solve them before Gamin returned to claim his soul.

A quick glance at the digital clock on the screen told him it was already 5:30 PM. Two hours and Thirty minutes! Once again, he had lost track of time. For him, it was like watching a vast river and keeping track of how much water flowed by. Such a pointless, trivial thing it eventually becomes. When one is a Vampire, time is the least of one's worries.

But perhaps now, he had wasted too much time. He was going nowhere with this futile search for clues and answers and he was willing to give it a break. After putting on his gloves, he switched off the main device and walked out of the vault. After securing it properly, he sauntered off into the kitchen for a light snack.

Several twists and turns later, Tiberius arrived at the kitchen, took out a can of Bloody Booze from the fridge and placed the chilled container to his forehead. In truth, it was quite refreshing. All that time in the library had given him a migraine. Perhaps it was due to the onset of the Thirst. But for reasons unknown it was possibly the result of surviving the _Insanity's Touch_, the most infamous torture technique of his "immortal enemy". This meant that he wished aspirin could work on him as well as they did on humans.

When Tiberius finally felt the migraine disappear, he bit into the puncture hole of the can and drank all the contents in one gulp. He did not care that it was cold. It was still blood, was it not?

Tiberius looked up at the clock above the kitchen doorway. 5:35 PM, it read. In twenty five minutes he would have to fly off to the Club O2, an oxygen bar, and meet Dudley, The Dude of Doom. As awkward as his name seemed, his predictions were no laughing matter. He could see into the past and the future at will. However, he could only see the misfortunes of one's destiny and nothing more. If ever he foretold anything good, that was always a dire omen and a catch was certain to arise.

5:36 PM.

"By the Ancients!" Tiberius cursed. Why was it that when he was at the library, time seemed to fly by so fast? Now that he was doing nothing, a minute felt like an eternity! Did someone meddle with all the clocks in the mansion with the sole purpose of irritating him? It felt like he was in the Twilight Zone.

Everything around him was so still, he could only hear the clock tick. "Annoying as Hell" appeared to be an understatement. Tiberius focused silently, bringing the palm of his claw to his temple and massaging it. His "meditation" was suddenly interrupted when he sensed that he was not alone. He perceived the scent of another being headed towards the kitchen. If he did not catch the scent, he would have been surprised at the figure that now stood by the door.

The figure was a little taller than Tiberius, around thirty to forty years of age, was of pale complexion, had silvery white hair and could almost pass for a slightly anemic yet well muscled human. The figure was Kain.

"Now, you don't look half bad, Kain," Tiberius said with a chuckle.

"Oh you really are enjoying this, aren't you?" Kain spoke in an annoyed and sarcastic manner.

"Now, now, calm yourself Kain. I think I know something that will make you feel better. Follow me."

The two Vampires strode out of the kitchen and passed through several hallways until they came upon a large, lavishly decorated room. From one wall to the other, the room was full of all sorts of weapons, from elemental blades to energy flails to Drakel Flashers and crissagrems. They had reached the Armory.

Kain was astonished at the vast array of weaponry in this room. But what caught his eye was a lone blade hanging, framed on a wall all to its own, complete with spotlights. Exquisite it was, and completely identical to the original down to every last detail. In his awe, Kain did not say anything but Tiberius replied anyway.

"Yes, Kain, it is the Reaver. I thought perhaps if you had it back in your claws, you would feel more at home in this world," Tiberius said as he strode over to remove the Reaver from its pristine casing. "Would you like to give it a try?"

"But of course, how could I refuse?" Kain answered confidently.

Tiberius handed the Reaver to Kain, hilt first as a sign of respect. Kain took it and began swinging it at the air with utmost precision. It felt the same. It even weighed the same. Yes, completely identical.

"Bear in mind, however," interrupted Tiberius, "that the blade you hold now is not the true Reaver. It is only a replica. I, myself, forged it. I even traveled to distant lands only to have it imbued with the Vampiric energy that the original possessed. It may not be as powerful, but it should be close enough."

Kain said nothing in reply. He was still carefully judging this new Reaver, testing it in this way and that. Enthralled he was at Tiberius' craftsmanship. If only Vorador had taken him in as an apprentice.

Several moments passed and Kain still examined the Reaver. He could feel the energy coursing through and emanating from the blade. When he finally decided that it was indeed flawless, Kain turned to Tiberius and congratulated him in his fine handiwork.

"Well, I must say you've –" Kain began. But when Kain turned around, he faced thirty-six inches of cold, hard steel. Only his lightning quick reflexes allowed him to block in time. Before Kain stood a bloodthirsty monster, fangs bared and wielding a crimson blade. Kain countered by pushing Tiberius away and assuming a defensive stance.

Tiberius momentarily stumbled back but caught his balance in an instant. He looked up at Kain and tried to stare him down. His eyes were even blacker than usual and a luminous verdant glow surrounded his irises. An empty fire burned in his predatory gaze. Saliva dripped from the edge of his mouth as he snarled and growled ferociously, almost like a provoked, rabid wolf. Tiberius was now no more than a deranged animal. He lunged at Kain, blocked his counter attack and shifted immediately to Kain's right and struck at the temple.

Fortunately, Kain blocked this strike as well by turning into mist. He rematerialized a few steps back. It dawned upon him that this was no playful sparring match. Some unknown entity possessed Tiberius now.

Kain assaulted with a flurry of several stab moves to the torso. But knowing this infamous move, Tiberius dodged it in a wink. He retaliated by running Kain through with several X figured blows. Some of these blows, Kain was unfortunate enough to make contact with. But it didn't matter in the least. His wounds healed moments after receiving the negligible damage.

"You've gone too far this time, Gamin! You touch anyone in my family and I will personally see to it that you are banished again!" Tiberius shouted. His claws tightened around the hilt of the sword.

"Tiberius! What are you doing?" Kain was utterly bewildered now. He knew nothing of this 'Gamin'. Neither could he understand what was happening to Tiberius. He tried to reason out with him as he parried another blow.

It was a good thing Kain had the opportunity to drink some blood beforehand and was given some time to rest. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to even stand a chance fighting against this possibly possessed, enraged Beast.

Kain thrust a telekinetic bolt at Tiberius, knocking him onto one of the shelves and causing it to fall on him. The older Vampire cautiously neared the wreckage with the Reaver at the ready. But he was not prepared for what was in store.

Tiberius broke free of the debris without a scratch and without hesitation, aimed a peculiar weapon at Kain and fired. A volley of flame assaulted his sensitive Vampiric skin. Kain was engulfed in flame and smoldered like a torch light. Fire always intensified a Vampire's pain a hundredfold. Water was no boon in this either. Fortunately, Kain possessed some form of pyrokinesis and willed the fire to extinguish itself.

However, this did not stop Tiberius from assailing Kain with the flamethrower like a pyromaniac. For a few moments, they chased around the Armory; Kain dodging the barrage of flames and Tiberius using Kain as target practice. Before long, several shelves caught fire.

One particular shelf happened to contain several different colored packages, each with a long fuse attached to it. As the flames began to fill the room, the fuses caught a few stray sparks and were visibly shortening within seconds. Fortunately, Kain happened to notice the shelf be set ablaze.

"Tiberius!" he called out.

Tiberius paid him no heed and resumed his arsonist rampage.

"Tiberius!" he called out again, dodging another barrage of flame.

The old Tiberius Kain knew of was no longer present in the room. It was his strength, his power, his body but not his mind. Kain now realized how positively demonic Tiberius now looked, surrounded by fire yet fueled it. He had the gift of wings which provided an advantage over Kain.

"TIBERIUS!!!" he shouted one last time before the earth-shattering boom.

Kain pressed himself onto the ground and not a moment too soon. He felt a searing wave of energy brush against his back. He feared the explosion may have even singed his hair.

The instant the explosion relented, Kain looked up at the debris left in its wake. The entire room was wrecked. Several shelves were still being consumed by the smoldering flames. The once whitewashed walls were now blackened with ash. The elegant drapes that covered the windows were reduced to a pile of filthy rags. The weapons strewn about the Armory were horribly tarnished. But in the midst of all the rubble, a lone figure stood shielded by his wings. He was coated from head to toe in a thin layer of soot and ash but otherwise he was unscathed. The Demonic glint had not left his eyes.

Tiberius took a couple of steps toward Kain before doubling over and clutching his side. It seemed to Kain as though the younger Vampire was throwing up blood. Kain neared him cautiously but kept the Reaver at the ready as a precaution. Upon further inspection, Kain realized that Tiberius had just vomited out a tiny salamander with eyes of pitch that caught Kain's gaze. It made contact for a split second before scurrying into one of the flames. Kain thought he saw a figure in the blaze but ignored it as simply a trick of the light.

Upon the lizard's ejection from the Vampire's esophagus, Tiberius collapsed onto the tiled floor. Kain rolled him over onto his back and attempted to stir him from his spell but the younger Vampire was out cold.

Kain's first thought was to seek help from the other members of the household but before he even left the room, they were already there, standing aghast at the wreckage and eying him as the culprit. Undoubtedly, a blast of that magnitude could not have gone unheard.

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When Tiberius awoke, he saw an angel smiling down upon him, caring for him, tending to his injuries, watching over him as a guardian angel would. Had he died and gone to Heaven? And why to Heaven of all places? Surely for all his past transgressions, he was only worthy enough for the nightmarish torment of the Satan's domain. As his mind cleared, he realized he was far from having crossed over. It was simply Severina gently dabbing a wet cloth on his forehead.

He was lying in a reclined Regency Chaise Lounge, resting his dazed head on a feather pillow. All the household servants stood silently around him, ready to cater to his every whim. By the wall, he noticed Kain having his wounds tended to by another servant. Kain's burn marks had disappeared without a trace. No doubt the work of a few drops of the Bloody Youth Potion. But what truly caught his attention was Kain's once silvery mane. A good claw's width had been singed off. The ends were now blackened and dry. Unfortunately, washing it could do no good.

Kain perceived Tiberius' gaze and returned the awkward stare. The expression on Kain's face was a portrait of distrust and hatred. Who could blame him? After everything he had been through, his past exploits in Nosgoth, his encounter with the Shadow Wolf, two severe beatings from a Vampire whom he trusted and to top it all off, his defining asset of physical appearance had been marred and would only be restored who knows when. Kain certainly wasn't having his day.

Tiberius' attention now switched back to Severina.

"Candy! You're awake!" Severina uttered softly. "We were so worried when we heard the explosion. We came as fast as we could."

"Ugh… Sevvie…" Tiberius weakly spoke as he brought his claw to his head. His headache had now reached gargantuan proportions, coupled with the sensation of a slightly upset stomach. "Gamin! He has returned!" Tiberius exclaimed, suddenly sitting up and making him feel even worse.

"Shush. Rest now, my love." Severina reassured her husband. She pushed him down calmly. "We'll deal with him when the time comes but for now you need to take it easy. Whatever happened in the Armory has drained you of your energy. You can't hide it from me. I know."

Tiberius refused to accept his present circumstance and attempted to sit up once more, to the resisting remarks of his wife.

"No, my love," she whispered. "You've been unconscious for over an hour and I will not allow you to spend the rest of your remaining Pranic energy worrying about some figment of your imagination."

"OVER AN HOUR??!!" Tiberius exclaimed. "What time is it?" A glance at the wall clock told him it was 7:45 PM. He was supposed to meet Dudley nearly two hours ago. "Sevvie, please, you must understand" he implored. "As much as I'd like to deny it, I need help. I seriously need help. I nearly killed TJ today and I could have killed Kain as well, and I don't know why, or how to stop myself. And the only person I know who can help me is Dudley, so please, I must get to him. I'll be fine. I promise. You have to trust me."

Severina knew that look in his eye. It was desperation. He knew what had to be done and she knew it as well. She helped him up and whispered in his ear, "Be careful, Candy."

"I will," he responded.

Tiberius dashed off without so much as noticing that he was still wearing his soot-covered jogging outfit, that his hair was a mess, that he had left behind the leather case for his wings and that in short he was nowhere in the situation to meet up with Dudley the Dude of Doom.

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Meanwhile, in another part of Sanguine, a figure clad in purple robes peered into his crystal ball and watched the winged Vampire race towards Club O2.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," he muttered. "Time is a terrible thing"

A/N: Just in case you didn't know, 3 PM is the Holy hour. Just as 3 AM is the witching hour.

Shortie: Swimming Kain (based on a game glitch I call the "Swimming Kain")

Kain: What in the hell took you so long, Kild? And why after all this time of letting me languish in the aging files of your dilapidated computer did you bring me up to cause me more torment?

Kild: Uh… I was bored?

Kain: ….

Kild: OK, OK, I'll make it up to you, even Raziel. Here are three tickets to Splash Island. Go to the beach or something and enjoy yourselves.

Raziel and Widdle Waziel: ROAD TRIP!!!

(At Splash Island, on top of a giant slide)

Raziel: You go first (pushes Kain)

Kain: WAIT A SEC! I CAN'T SWIM!! I'M ALLERGIC TO WATER!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: **I do not own the rights to Legacy of Kain and, Elder God forbid, let us hope that neither does Uwe Boll. (If you know what I mean)

**A/N: **GAAAAHHH!!! I can't take it anymore! I probably would have gotten this up earlier if my computer did not hate me and become the debauched traitor it is now. But the mere fact that my computer conspires against me depresses me and I write when I am depressed. I am depressed because I am now forced to edit this chapter completely on so that I can work on it using any computer. Depression fuels the writer's rage but reviews are like a drug that can make me go to my happy place.

Anyway, I've let an **entire** year pass by without updating a single chapter. Please, please, pretty please forgive the excessively long delay. But in my absence, I have not entirely been idle. Most of the previous chapters have been revised. I even added a new prologue. I've also had to strip away various plot elements since their presence would have made everything too convenient. If you have forgotten what has happened in the past chapters, I would greatly appreciate it if you could go back and re-read from everything from the top, if it's not too much to ask. I was sorely tempted to write a summary here of what happened in the past chapters but that would be defeating the purpose. I really think the new and improved version is waaaay better, because the way the original story was going, it looked like nothing more than your typical "girl-gets-sucked-into-Nosgoth-and-meets-Raziel-and-Kain-and-have-adventures-together-the-end" kind of story or a Mary Sue. Now, I DON'T want to write that kind of stereotypical crap.

Also, in this chapter, I will be introducing a new element in the storyline. The crucial word itself will not be present in the entirety of this chapter but any true LOK fan should know what I am hinting at. This chapter works best if you read it out loud. Lastly, if you're going to complain about the unnecessary descriptions of the murals, know that they are important. And without any further ado, I give you Chapter 13.

**Chapter 13**: Erebus, The Forbidden and the High Ethos

Lakan, second son of Vukodlak, poised himself as he prepared to lunge at his prey. Before him, not three feet away, his game idly grazed on the morning dew of white Kalachs. The mousedeer, docile yet swift-footed remained unaware of the impending danger. Being a Shade, Lakan did not actually have to consume flesh but the thrill of the hunt was essential to him.

Lakan's muscles tensed, ready to make the kill. However, before he could make the lethal pounce, a distant howl interrupted his game. The mousedeer, startled by the noise, frantically leapt away in a single bound.

Lakan silently cursed himself for allowing his prey to elude him. He silently cursed a second time as he turned around to find the source of the intrusion. In the corner of his eye, he spotted a most unusual group; a Shadow Wolf, a Were-cat, and a Wraith.

'_So the Starskin has brought a companion, has she?'_ he thought to himself. Lakan narrowed his eyes though he had no choice but to howl back in acknowledgement otherwise he would be in the wrong. He watched the motley trio for a few more moments before dashing off to inform the Elders of this unexpected arrival. The Champion of their Master's Race had come to them at last.

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As Raziel, Yrouna and Val crossed the threshold into the Wolf Shrine, nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary. There were rosebushes everywhere they looked. But further on, what appeared to be a colossal green Nautilus stood on the mountain top. In the distance, Raziel saw the silhouette of a Wolf on the hunt. He accidentally let his prey loose when Val abruptly howled to him in acknowledgment of their presence. When they had caught his full attention, he began howling in return. This they did and went on their way.

They resumed traversing the relatively verdant landscape, all the while encountering various Shades in lupine form. Some of them howled as a form of salute. However, others appeared to merely observe their passage with intense glaring eyes.

As they passed by, Raziel could not help but notice something odd about the manner he was being watched. Disregard the fact that he no longer had his cowl and was openly displaying his hideous countenance for all to see. The Shades appeared to see him as some form of conquering hero and would bow down in reverence whenever his gaze fell upon them. They looked at him as though they looked upon a God. This was certainly not the reaction Raziel had expected. Perhaps it was because he wielded the Soul Reaver, though Raziel could not be too sure. These beings could not possibly know of the ancient weapon's existence, could they? But one thing was certain. He never managed to maintain direct eye contact with any of them, as though they thought he could see into their souls. Without doubt, something was suspicious about these creatures. But he simply could not put his claw on it. A little further on, Raziel perceived a most peculiar sight that served only to heighten his feelings of mistrust.

Upon a dilapidated and festering hollow shell of a tree sat a delicate woman garbed in the purest of white. Her eyes were directed at the newcomers, particularly at Val. She was no mere woman though and was in fact a Spirit. The Wolf said nothing at this but instead marched directly to the figure perched precariously on the Tree of Kalach.

Val stopped short just a meter before the tree and bowed down in respect to her Tutor. She opened her mouth to address Ella and was about to explain the foreign arrival of Raziel when she was vehemently cut off by a forceful gesture of Ella's right hand. Not even the slightest sound gurgled past Val's wolfish snout. She kept her jaws shut as though she were infected with a severe case of lockjaw tetanus. Val stood erect as a dog to be commanded or in this case, reprimanded. There were no warm greetings between mentor and apprentice. Ella was blunt enough to make her point the first moment she had.

"You should not have come here, Val" Ella's tone was condescending and merciless. "I am very disappointed in you. You disobeyed the Code."

Val was completely taken aback by this aggressive outburst. Ella was normally of gentle nature. She wouldn't be this angry unless she had good reason to be.

"I… I'm sorry?" Val stuttered. She was truly clueless as to why her Mentor was angered so. "I beg your pardon but I don't understand what you speak of." Val shifted her head to one side and looked questioningly. Her prior conceited demeanor was immediately banished and replaced by fear and bewilderment. She suddenly felt all alone, as though that Spirit, Eidolon, had abandoned her.

"**YOU FED!** **Look at you! You're a disgrace**!" Ella pointed at the obvious blood stains on her chest and mouth. They had caked up around her skin and fur.

Val looked at herself and recalled the bloody feast that had so recently eluded her thoughts. Why had she not realized this earlier? If Ella had seen it, then all the Wolves they had encountered would have known of it by now as well. "It was a Vampire!" She desperately pleaded to no avail. "A Vampire!"

"Regardless of the Race, you still fed and that is against our Principles! You are to only consume what is Holy and is provided by Nature, not the evolutionary dead-ends or rejects!"

The Wolf's ears drooped in shame. Her tail hid between her hind legs. Her head fell low, as near the ground as it could get, in penance for this foul act.

"How is it you have fallen into darkness if you are so pure of heart, Star-Skin." Ella continued relentlessly. Spiteful were her words, though Val seemed puzzled rather than insulted.

"Star-Skin?" Val half murmured. She was bewildered at this new title.

"Yes, you shall henceforth be named Star-Skin for you shall be Keeper of the Constellations, Stewardess of the Stars. It is from their light you shall draw strength, should you pass the test of fire."

" I… I don't understand what you are talking about. I am… I am lost."

"That you are, Val, which is precisely why you shouldn't have come. But it's too late to turn back now."

The Wolf's face was a portrait of uncertainty and misunderstanding.

At this, Ella's appearance suddenly softened. She dropped to the ground and put her right hand on Val's head, not that she could touch her but as a sort of sign of encouragement to her pupil.

"I'm not exactly angry at you, Val. But I am disappointed. I care about you. That's why I still dwell in this madhouse. I'm just worried about what the Elders will do to you when they find out about this. That's why you should not have come here, at least not now. There's no way you can hide this." She briefly pointed again to the coagulated blood all over her snout. "I can only hope _**His**_ arrival here will keep them distracted long enough."

At this she gestured at the seemingly forgotten wraith next to the nauseous black cat. The Wolf instantaneously glanced at them then back at Ella causing a mask of even greater humiliation to form on her lupine face, if that was even possible.

"His name is Raziel." Val immediately explained. "He is a wraith and---" Ella cut her off once more.

"I know very well what he is and why He's here or do you forget who it was that taught you all this in the first place?" She then turned to Raziel. "My sincerest apologies, Brave Warrior." Ella made her right hand into a fist, placed it near her heart and bowed. "It seems that my apprentice has yet to learn common courtesy. Please accept my humble apologies for her inconsiderate behavior. You are our guest here, Raziel. Welcome to Namaste, Asylum of Wolves."

"Your apologies are most accepted, My Lady." Raziel spoke in turn. At least this woman had some sense and dignity in her, unlike most of the other beings Raziel had encountered since his arrival into this strange realm. "And you are correct in saying that the Wolf has much to learn. I've seen what she is capable of but she requires discipline lest she become too overconfident of her abilities."

Val did not like being the subject of such a spiteful conversation but she had no right to voice out her opinions at the present moment.

"I assure you, Raziel." Ella continued. "She will be disciplined. But now, we cannot speak. The Elders draw near. Salute them and they will worship you. Spite them and still they will worship you. But I warn you this, do not be deceived."

Also, unlike all the other creatures Raziel had so far encountered in this territory, Ella kept her eyes directly upon Raziel's luminous orbs where his eyes should have been. Now, it seemed that she was the one looking right into his soul instead of the other way around. This fierce Spirit commanded an air of confidence and a facade of near-omniscience. But Raziel knew better than to believe in that facade. To top it all off, Ella whispered a warning into his mind. _**"Beware the Green-Eyed Ones, Raziel. They will seek to use you."**_

As soon as she had finished this message, a peculiar miasma began to accumulate on the ground surrounding them. Small clouds of mist began to take form of translucent Wolves before their very eyes. Within seconds, three well-built wolves with muscular bodies, each sporting a shadowy gray coat of fur seemed to materialize. One of them stood foremost and acted as the leader.

Raziel perceived that Yrouna and Val stood so still, they appeared to have become statues. Their only movement was to make a fist with their right hands and place them on the left side of their chests, just above their hearts. They then bowed their heads in respect. The Three Elder Wolves greeted them in return with a similar gesture. Seeing this, Raziel mimicked the sign as best he could. The Wolves saluted in return.

"Welcome back, Little One," The one called Gilhiego spoke directly to Val. "Your timing is impeccable. As you will soon Come of Age, we have much to discuss."

"Yes, sir," Val replied. "But I too have some things I wish to talk about."

"All in good time, my dear, but now, everyone inside. There is no use talking outside when the sun is about to rise. Oh and I see you've brought a visitor with you."

"Yes, Sir" interrupted Val. "We have a guest, Sir. His name is Raziel. We were hoping he could stay here."

Lakan immediately pushed Val aside without hesitation and his eyes made contact with the said Wraith. "Of course, He is very much welcome to stay in our humble domain. We are deeply honored by your presence here, Lord and Champion." There was a sudden change in his voice, as though he had come face to face with a God.

Raziel saw in the Wolf's tone and facial expression that he meant every word of it, although, one with Raziel's appearance did not exactly expect such a warm welcome.

"But where are our manners?" Gilhiego continued, in turn, pushing Lakan to the side. "I am Lord Gilhiego, First Son of Lord Vukodlak and these are my Brothers, Lord Lakan and Lord Ronnel. We, the Triad of Elders, are at your service, Lord Raziel."

"I thank you for your benevolent hospitality, Lord Gilhiego and though I intend no ill will, I must ask you this. Why do you address me as a "Lord" when clearly we have never met?"

Raziel was briefly met with an awkward silence. Gilhiego, the Alpha Wolf, did not appear to have an answer ready and looked around nervously at his Brothers, as though he expected them to know the answer to the Wraith's query. In acquiescence of defeat, he turned back to face Raziel with a rather uneasy smile in the hope that the Wraith would accept his explanation.

"Oh I do hope I have not offended you with such a common title, Oh Sublime One. But you see, your arrival was not unexpected. It was foretold long ago by our Masters. As we are indebted to them, so are we indebted to you."

Despite the Alpha Wolf's reassuring words, Raziel still felt suspect of the entire situation. All of those he so far had met in this Asylum of Wolves appeared to know him somehow, though he had no recollection of this place or of the creatures that inhabited it.

"In that case, you may address me as "Lord" if you must. But tell me more of your "Masters"."

"Of course, My Lord, but if Your Grace permits, Lady Giselle would have to answer your questions for now. I am sorry but we have urgent matters to attend to regarding Star-Skin."

At this, the semi-corporeal Alpha Wolf grabbed Val forcefully and motioned to escort her away. He had a vise grip upon her lupine neck that threatened to snap her bones cleanly in half. When Gilhiego was in such a mood, he was not to be taken lightly.

But as the four turned to depart, Raziel suddenly halted them with the Reaver. "You must have some faith in me then," Raziel began, "if you are so willing to jeopardize her existence." He pointed at Ella. "Or do you forget that I am a devourer of souls?"

"Indeed, a Wraith you are, My Lord." Gilhiego quickly replied. "But take it as a token of confidence. You may do with her as you wish. It is her purpose. She is yours now. But by your leave, forgive us. We mustn't tarry in this regard. The Star-Skin must be cleansed of her sins. A baptism is in order. The High Ethos demands it."

The Wolf Ronnel stood beside Ella and whispered to her discreetly. "Do whatever he asks of you. Answer all his questions and cater to his every whim. We cannot afford to fall from his favor, not now. Should you need anything, do not disturb us unless it is absolutely necessary. We will be preoccupied with Erebus IX. Do as you are told, Mentat." Were Ella still a corporeal being, she would have clenched her fists and gritted her teeth in infuriation at being treated like a circus animal, performing disdainful tricks upon her Ringmaster's whim.

Ronnel then turned to Yrouna, who was turning various sickening shades of green. "You are dismissed. Go! Relieve yourself."

Yrouna looked as though she had been waiting ages for those words to be spoken. She dashed off into the distance so quickly that she could only be made out as a dark blur searching for the nearest washroom.

As uncanny and sudden as they appeared, the Alpha Wolves vanished, shrouded in mist. Only this time, they took Valwique along with them.

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Ella was now alone, face to face with a Reaver of souls, the one creature her Superiors had been waiting for all these years, the solitary being she was destined to serve and the only entity that could liberate her and her kind from their oppressive creators. He alone could cause the demise of all who lived within the Asylum of Wolves but Ella felt no fear in his presence.

Raziel then turned to the Spirit and asked her in a casual tone, "Is that all they ever do? Worship and beg for forgiveness?"

"As long as you're here," Ella replied, "I wouldn't be surprised if they name a feast day after you. They worship you, Raziel. Your will is their command."

"But why? I wonder," was Raziel's bewildered response. "What is the reason behind their blind and unquestioning adoration?"

"The answer is either exceedingly simple or ridiculously complicated, whichever way you'd want it. But I cannot answer your questions here, Raziel, not now. It is not safe for us to be conversing in plain sight." At this, Ella stopped speaking and mentally whispered yet another warning to the recently venerated Wraith. "Not only do the _**Walls **_have ears, Raziel, but they can learn. They can recognize. The _**High Ethos**_ listens in on our every conversation. "

"And now, are you to ask forgiveness as well, for being unable to answer my queries? You needn't lie to me." Raziel quipped without hesitation.

"Please, Raziel, hear me out. Hear _Us_ out. Come, I know where _We_ can all talk in peace. I will give you all the answers there." Ella begged of Raziel.

"Very well, Spirit. Lead the way." The Wraith sighed.

Ella drifted off towards the sophisticated green complex and Raziel followed suit close behind. But as they drew closer, Ella appeared to have no intention of entering the Nautilus, instead moving towards a concealed side entrance. Raziel observed that the outer wall of the structure itself was covered with various murals depicting what he believed to be some form of animalistic worship. A plethora of unnatural creatures were painted on the walls. A wolf with a horse-like head, a cross between a dragon and a scorpion, a scathed rodent fitted with metal platings, a human scorpion, a half-bodied atrocity, an eyeless horseman and a headless demon with many hands decorated the exterior of the Nautilus. But above all these enigmatic beings towered a completely white humanoid entity with lizard-esque features riding atop a massive serpent. Raziel was puzzled as to what all of these images meant. They might have been relevant to his presence or not at all. But either way, Raziel could not explain it but these images struck him. He uncannily felt as though they boded something, whether or not they were complete gibberish.

As they neared the wall, Raziel searched in vain for some hidden doorway, as Ella phased right through the wall effortlessly. Though Raziel was a Wraith and could easily bypass metal grates and bars, he still lacked the ability to completely walk through walls as a spirit would. However, Raziel did not have to search long, for as he stood gazing at the convoluted icons, a perceptible crack appeared on the ground. The Wraith stepped backwards in haste to avoid falling into the widening fissure.

Raziel drew away from the crevice not a moment too soon for it had completely opened up revealing a massive underground trapdoor. Inside the opening, Ella hovered in mid –air, gesturing for him to enter. Raziel looked about him cautiously before taking a few tentative steps into the passageway. As soon as he was inside, the ground converged, hiding the fissure from plain sight.

Once the Wraith and Spirit were within the safety of the underground passageway, Ella hazarded to utter "If we had gone by the main entrance, one of the sentinels would have followed us. We must make for the Inner Sanctum at the heart of the Mountain. Only then, can we speak without restriction."

Raziel narrowed his eyes but did not reply to the Spirit's comment. He was quickly tiring of all this secrecy.

The dark underground catacombs of Namaste were a labyrinth, with new each corner looking exactly like the one prior. Subconsciously, Raziel strived to memorize the path he was taking. A human would no doubt lose his bearings past the first ten turns but Raziel had a highly developed sense of navigation constituted of a thousand years experience. In the end it was not all that difficult to find his way past the maze, into the very heart of Namaste.

Ella flitted in and out of view ahead of him but something had changed about her. To Raziel, Ella appeared to be growing younger. In fact, it appeared that there was a child playing a game of chase with Raziel, goading him to follow. To add to the timeless effect, Raziel thought he heard voices of children reverberating within the seemingly never-ending corridors. Laughter so sweet and innocent resounded from every corner. The infantile peals of mirth became louder and louder until it seemed as though the entire hallway was filled with children. Momentarily, Raziel thought he had gone mad.

However, Raziel was further immersed into a realm of surreality when one of the hysteric laughing voices wailed in anguish and began to weep pitifully. Boundless amusement immediately turned to crying and screaming as a despicable and morose tone gurgled from the walls. Phantom hands scratched at the walls, seeking release. The agony of lost souls cried out to Raziel and all of them, children. Disembodied voices told of ritualistic sacrifices and hedonist mutilations.

"_Tis' your flesh we want to experience."_

"_Time to play, Dessio" _

"_Dear little Thanatos, you must understand that death is a delicate art and the body, a canvas."_

"_Sever our limbs and keep us restrained_

_No one shall hear our tortured cries_

_Festering corpses are all that remained_

_In this land of oppression and lies"_

"_We offer this sacrifice upon the altar of the world."_

"_With the coming of the __**Serpent**__, the blood of Vampires shall be purged from this world and the next. We must create the perfect vessel. The High Ethos demands it. Only then shall we know true deliverance." _

"_Nothing but another failure; She must be destroyed! Into the Prism with her!" _

"_Yrouna, find us another specimen!" _

It was not the fact that innocent souls condemned to eternal torment were now calling out to Raziel that struck the Wraith as odd. It was the mere fact that this all occurred in the Material Realm that Raziel found unusual. He had not yet encountered a location that appeared to be so spiritually active even in the Physical World. This was no doubt a monumental first for the Wraith. Then again, he had only just arrived at this uncanny realm and yet so much had already happened. Raziel had been exposed to both insults and adorations in only a matter of hours. What more could this world possibly offer that could still truly surprise him?

Raziel had jumped to conclusions too soon. Not a moment after that thought had entered his mind the Wraith found himself face-to-eye with an enormous, glowing green eyeball the size of his entire head. The creature blinked and inspected him from head to cloven foot. In truth, Raziel was greatly disturbed as it resized itself to a normal eyeball and began to explore Raziel's cavernous lack of innards. Soon, an entire school of floating eyeballs fluttered right up to him. Raziel unsuccessfully attempted to shoo them away with his claws but the eyeballs were too many and too curious to be deterred by Raziel's claws. Were these creatures the malevolent _**Green-Eyed Ones**_ Ella spoke of? Surely, they appeared to be rather guileless and naïve to be of any threat. But their mere proximity and number were enough to secretly intimidate even Raziel.

Inexplicably, the floating clusters of eyeballs were assaulted by a myriad of seizures. Dark tendrils shot up from the ground and momentarily eclipsed their sight, shielding Raziel from their prying gaze. "Come Raziel! Quickly!" Ella beckoned to the Wraith. "We have no time for them. My power will not be able stall them for long."

In the end, Raziel was impelled to quicken his chase with the Child-Spirit that now scurried off before him. As they left the eyes convulsing in the snares of the dark tendrils, Ella summoned a resplendent surge of light to temporarily blind her pursuers. The moment she and Raziel were well out of their sight, Ella explained to the Wraith. "They were Argus and Panoptes, Sentinels, the Pets of our All-knowing Authors."

"I was under the impression that by taking this cryptic path, we would be free of them. Or is that not you told me?" Raziel sneered in contempt.

"It seems I was mistaken. They would not normally take this path unless someone commanded them to. But we must hurry, they might return."

For all it was worth, he secretly believed Ella was playing him for fool. Raziel had no reason to even remain here and continue with this senseless pursuit that went around in circles. He had no desire to be lead to nowhere. What did he care of the mysterious "**_Green-Eyed Ones_**"? It seemed so easy to simply turn around and leave. Leave the children to their suffering!

But before he came to that decision, before he even knew it, Raziel and Ella had reached their destination. They found themselves at the heart of the mountain as far away from the High Ethos as possible. The entrance to the Inner Sanctum was lined with a Latin inscription. It said:

_Intra Muros_

_Habito Erebus_

_Nos es inconcessus_

_Within these walls_

_Dwell the Erebus_

_We are Forbidden_

Inside the Inner Sanctum, however, a vast Pool of Blood percolated beneath eight Prisms suspended by chains on the ceiling. These glass cages held the mutilated corpses of the anguished children. They ranged from the ages of nine and fifteen and all appeared to have suffered some excruciating cause of death. Most were incinerated, coupled with various impalements and lacerations. Some had been disemboweled, with hooks and barbed wires peeling away at their delicate skins. Others had metal plates welded into their flesh. One solitary body, a female, appeared to have the most painless death with a decapitation. All the carcasses, frozen in fear, were trapped in their crystal boxes for all to see.

"My God!" The words escaped Raziel's absent mouth as he beheld the ruthless displays exhibited in the Inner Sanctum. These atrocities of cadavers were works of art.

The childlike form of Ella faced Raziel and whispered. "Do you still wonder why no one here in the Asylum has yet been horrified by your disfigurement?" She then turned to the Eight Prisms suspended above the Pool and cried out. "Sisters, Brothers, Children of the Forbidden, I call upon you now to witness our emancipation from this wretched world."

Inexplicably, seven phantasms materialized from the dangling Prisms. They hovered outside their glass boxes but retained their mangled visages.

"I trust that none of you are ignorant of our Deliverer's presence here." Ella declared to the Erebus with unrelenting fervor.

The Children replied in chorus. "All hail the bearer of our salvation!" They bowed down to Raziel and extended their arms as a gesture of adulation.

"You needn't venerate me so." Raziel humbly stated. "I only want answers and I want the truth."

"Raziel," Ella began. "These are the Erebus, the Forbidden, creatures designed by the Wolves to do their bidding, mainly to eradicate vampires. Valwique is one of them. She is not the supposed "last of her kind." She is merely the latest in the series of nine. In the end, she will die a meaningless death, just like all the others. The Prisms - that is the fate that awaits her should she fail the test of fire."

"You said a series of nine. I only see seven here. Where is the other?"

"Why Raziel, you're looking right at her."

The rest of the Erebus remained silent as Ella's entire being was encompassed in a shimmering light. Her imaged wavered until she transmogrified into an entity not unlike the other Children. Ella was completely bald and burn marks were blatantly etched all over her skin

"You are one of them?" Raziel asked in revelation.

"Yes, Raziel. I am Giselle De Mentat, the First Erebus. We will answer all your questions to the best of our ability but first please hear us out. Not everything is as it appears to be. First of all, this is the safest place for us to freely speak. But to be sure, let us enter the Spirit Realm. The Sentinels will not be able to see us and thus the High Ethos will not be able to detect our presence there. Only, then can we be certain that no one will be watching our conversation. Please, leave your sword on that stone slab over there and I guarantee you that it will not be so much as touched until you return to retrieve it." At least Ella did not fail to remember the Ancient weapon.

"Very well, if you insist." Raziel sighed. "But let warn you now that my patience wanes with every passing moment and this I can tell this "High Ethos" has you cowering in fear, the whole lot of you, so this had better be worth everything you've gambled upon. What you have to say to me now should be of great importance."

"It will be, Raziel, I promise you it will."

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Valwique and the Alpha Wolves materialized in the center of what appeared to be an extensive coliseum. The Ninth Erebus looked about her and took in the vicinity. "The Arena? What are we doing here?"

"The time has come, Child." Gilhiego spoke in an impassive tone. "You are now strong enough to be baptized. You are of the right age and you have proven yourself worthy by coming here of your own volition, bringing with you the Champion. So far, you have succeeded where _**others**_ have failed. However, it is now time to test your true potential and see if you are fitting for your purpose. But first, let me ask you this question, are you afraid?"

Val recognized this place as the execution ground for captured Vampires. They were brutally challenged to the death as new opponents always came in to replace the prior fallen. "No." Val answered with conviction. "I will take on any vampire." She did not even stop to think who these secretive "Others" were

"Vampire?" Lakan jeered at the girl. "Ha! You wish!"

"You'll be fighting us now, Child." Ronnel added.

"To see if you are truly worthy, you must draw blades with us in all out combat." Gilhiego continued. "It will put all your previous training to the test. If you cannot defend yourself, then we have failed. You have a choice of a handheld weapon and you are not to be aided by the Spirit who followed you here."

"Eidolon?" Val gasped in surprise. "You can see her?"

"Oh dear girl, we were able sense her presence long before yours." Gilhiego replied in mock amusement.

"That was why I kept silent upon entering the Asylum of Wolves. We had to see how you would hold up on your own." Eidolon acquiesced.

"'**We?' **You know each other?" All these newfound revelations just seemed to keep piling on top of each other. The burden of knowledge was most unbearable.

"More than you can ever imagine." Gilhiego said in response. "The old alliance is still in effect. But that is a history lesson for another time. Now, choose your weapon."

Valwique looked at her blue Illustrazio bag in desperation. Most, if not all her weapons were specifically designed in the annihilation of Vampires, not Lupine Shades. Her eyes made the briefest contact with Eidolon's and the Spirit's instructive wink told Val to use the Twin swords she recently received. "The Cryse Blades, then. I shall use them."

"Don't help her!" Gilhiego instinctively snapped at

"Do you not trust me?" Eidolon stated in defense.

"Ready yourself. The battle shall commence in ten minutes." The command was directed at Val. Gilhiego did not appear to have heard the Spirit's remark.

The Ninth Erebus left for a private to change to more suitable fighting garments. As she put aside her arsenal of vampire repellant devices, Eidolon came up behind her and murmured over her shoulder. "Dispose of your other weapons. They are mere playthings and this is no longer a time for your little games."

"I thought they told you not to help me." Val was quick to reproach her.

"What I say to you now has nothing to do with the battle. I am simply telling you to rid yourself of those toys."

These "toys" have saved my life many times. Why should I throw them away now?" Val remarked as she put on a lightweight set of crimson armor

"Because the rules have changed and besides I have seen you in an age where you would spit upon anyone using such primitive and cowardly devices. Inevitably, you will have to forsake them."

"Just as you would have me forsake my friends?"

"They cannot remain your friends, Child. In fact, you will have to forsake your entire existence here so I suggest you start now. This is nothing compared to what you will undertake in Nosgoth."

"Nosgoth this, Nosgoth that. Why did we come back here in the first place then?"

"May I remind you that you were the one who wished to return here, to this world. Not to mention, you've forgotten about Gamin."

"Oh right." Val sighed in defeat.

The summoning bells began to clang in preparation for the onslaught. Both Eidolon and Val looked up to the Summons. The Bells were only rung in occasions of great importance. This was certainly one of them. There was no turning back now. The High Ethos demanded it.

"Well the battle is about to begin, Child. Go. Kill or be killed."

"How encouraging."

The fight was about to begin and Val looked up to see that all the Shades in the Asylum, the deceased Spirits of her ancestors, the Shadow Wolves, all had eyes upon her. If she were to fail now, she would be letting them all down. Val took her place at the center of the Arena as Eidolon made the traditional opening remarks. How it was that the Spirit even knew how to function the opening remarks was beyond her. Val was even only half-listening when Eidolon declared that Val would be fighting all the Elders at the same time.

"Three against one? Wait, this isn't fair!" Val protested in vain.

"Justice has no bearing in this fight, Girl." Lakan taunted.

"Let the battle commence!" Eidolon declared to cut short the trivial chit-chat. She then turned her back at the combatants and departed and departed the stadium without any further notice. As the Ninth Erebus was about to face her greatest tribulation yet, Eidolon abandoned her without a second thought. Valwique never even had the chance to plead for her to stay, even if it were for little more than moral support. No. The Spirit had more important matters to deal with now.

The battle had ended before it even begun. Val, aided as she was by her Twin Cryse Blades, never actually had the chance to rehearse with these prehistoric weapons. Summoning her powers of Dark Matter, she coated herself with the shadowy substance in a vain attempt to lessen the impact of the blows dealt upon her.

Ronnel, wielding a pair of flaming whips, was more of a distraction than a threat to Valwique in this fray. He taunted her, striking the whips at her feet as his brothers attacked Val while she had her guard down. Gilhiego was armed with a pair of Fire Poi, ball – shaped weights suspended on chains and set aflame. Lakan also sported a pair of Poi , only unlike his Brother's, this pair had not been set alight but instead were menacingly bladed. The slightest abrasion guaranteed a deeply cut wound.

Val deftly rolled to the side with the intent of thrusting one of the blades into Lakan's exposed chest in typical Rompida fashion. But as the blade neared his flesh, it was as though some unseen force kept her hand at bay. A disjointed yet mesmerizing voice echoed in her head saying "You will not harm them. They are your Superiors. You can not harm them." Being the obedient little dog she was, she obeyed without question and her arm froze in mid-air. This moment of hesitation cost her a full frontal assault by the bladed Poi. Lakan spun the Poi around so fast that within seconds, the Ninth Erebus was a stunned waterfall of silver blood.

She fell on her back but quickly recovered to deal a driving blow towards Gilhiego. Val leapt up and took to the air aiming her sword at the Alpha Wolf below her. Unfortunately, her Nightmare's Hammer was not only successfully cut short and parried but she was also thrown back by the force of her own blow. Gilhiego's Fire Poi accelerated at such an inordinate speed that it formed some sort of impenetrable barrier around his body. Val could not so much as touch the quickening shield without getting half her arm scathed in the process.

This was getting ridiculous. Had all her life spent training been for naught? Why could she not land a single blow on any of the Elders? Who or what was that invisible entity that kept her from fighting them? All these questions running around madly in her head caused her movements to falter and lose focus.

Before she knew it, one of Ronnel's flaming whips had wound itself around her left wrist. The Alpha Wolf did a complicated backflip and at the next instant, the bewildered Erebus found her arm in a locked chicken wing position. Ronnel wasted no time in binding her other arm so she could not move. The searing pain of the of the flaming whips cauterizing her skin caused Val to release her grip on the Cryse blades, which fell to the floor as a sign of imminent defeat.

With Val completely disarmed and helpless, the Elders did not hesitate to pummel her within an inch of her half-life, her pitiful subsistence. Ronnel held her bound as his Brothers proceeded to burn and maim her in every possible yet unimaginable way. When they were done, they let Val drop to the ground into a puddle of her own silvery blood.

She looked up from her contorted position and saw that the Elders were whispering to one another. Try as she might, though, she could only make out fragmented sentences from their conversation.

"...was pathetic... didn't even last as long as Thanatos..."

"Deremof... better fighter..."

"...failed experiment..."

"...Fetch Yrouna... We may require... find us a new specimen... should the need arise."

In the end, Erebus IX lay abandoned, sprawled and unmoving upon the marble floor. Her entire body was riddled with burns and lacerations, covering nearly every inch of her skin. She tried to get up but found herself agonizingly paralyzed. The branded scar she once sported on her face was now intricately meshed in with a plethora of newly acquired wounds. These lesions would eventually heal to form an elaborate web of disfigurement, forever etched onto her face. Worst of all was that her long, silken, jet black hair had been reduced to a disheveled entanglement of remaining minute strands. She had become nearly bald as a result of the battle.

Her head lolled over to one side in defeat, her mouth wide open with a spittle of silver blood and saliva slowly trickling out. She was a vessel of stone and lead, if stone could feel pain. Nothing more than a cadaver now lay on the febrile surface of marble, still seething from the intensity of combat.

Her right eye opened with her left being too wounded, taking in the grotesque images of flame and shadow and smoking debris, of anger and malice, of hatred and mockery. The last words she barely made out as the Wolves departed made no sense to her. It was Lakan who asked "Shall I prepare the Prism, then?"

She thought she glimpsed momentarily a figure in the flames laughing at her, taunting her. In a flash, it was gone.

But no, she was not alone.

Val felt a presence directly above her and she looked up to the ceiling in confirmation. Indeed, eying her was a tiny red salamander with eyes of pitch. Before she could react, before she could even utter a scream, the entity was upon her. Its slimy skin made contact with her mutilated flesh. She could feel its viscous excretions tingling her cheek, a sensation she detested to no end.

In her weakened state, she could not move, only squirm and watch in horror as she witnessed the vile little cretin crawl into her open mouth. She was wracked with internal spasms as it forced itself down her esophagus. Tears welled in her eyes. She felt so defiled, so betrayed. Reality seized her by the throat and tantalized her with the elusive offer of oblivion.

A thousand voices wailed inside her, desperately seeking rupture. The multitude rose in pitch and then… silence.

It was then she heard a single word resounding with infinite power.

Hash'ak'gik…

Soon, a new God would rise and His rule would be absolute.

Hash'ak'gik…

And thus she was born anew. A puppet. A weapon. A daughter.

**Hash'ak'gik… **

A/N: Well I hope y'all get the drift. Remember, these are Soul Reaver 1 Kain and Raziel, too damn early in the game to know anything about the H--bleep (I told you I wouldn't say it.) Now, the challenge is to keep them from knowing. Also this story is only possible in the alternate timeline where Blood Omen 2 occurs.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: If only I owned Legacy of Kain, there would have already been another game and a movie NOT by Uwe Boll. But seeing as such things are currently non-existant, it only means that I own moot.

A/N:Sorry, this was late... again. I've had a lot on my hands lately but I didn't want this to stagnate in my Documents.

As you may have noticed, I have changed the title to "Subjugators of the Flesh:Rise of Legion." After my complete overhaul of the direction of the story, I saw that the original title, "Vampires and Shadow Wolves just don't mix" had no significance in the plot anymore and was downright crappy, not to mention grossly unoriginal. Hopefully, after the last chapter, you will also have noticed that the main conflict is no longer between Vampires and Shadow Wolves but between Vampires and the Hylden.

Btw, the Boaia Muzzle is completely fictional and is pronounced Boo - Wah - Yah. Vector Hooks are also fictional.

Also, I will occasionally give recommended listenings to accompany my chapter. For this chapter, I would suggest listening to "Vermillion part 2" by "Slipknot" while reading. Feel free to look it up in youtube.

Lastly, sorry if some of the dialogue in this chapter sounds like the deleted dialogue from Blood Omen 2. It was definitely influenced by it. Anyway, without any further ado, I give you Chapter 14: Shades of Gray.

**Chapter 14**: Shades of Gray

Hash'Ak'Gik

Hash'Ak'Gik

Like a child stirred by a sombre lullaby, the Ninth Erebus came to and ever so slowly took in her surroundings. The dismal caverns emanated an aura of the vilest manners of sorcery imaginable. Black Operations, necromancy, demonic worship and possession; these were merely a few of the malevolent deeds the telltale walls whispered of.

Feebly, Valwique rose up on all fours. She found it most excruciating to try to stand on two. The world reeled sickeningly around her but something was wrong. It was not merely caused by nausea. No. Something was certainly missing in her surroundings, a quality of sorts though she could not lay her hand upon the elusive aspect.

For now, it mattered little. The miasma that slithered past the archaic walls and crevices obscured her view enough to make her skin crawl. If malice could take on a physical form, it would certainly be this nebula that clawed at everything it touched. "Mist" or "fog" could certainly not be used to describe this thing. It was the very breath of evil and it had taken the minds of what appeared to be religiously blind worshippers that paid tribute to some Ungodly creature.

Yes, as she gained hold of her bearings, she could hear the voices resounding throughout the caverns. "Hash'Ak'Gik… Hash'Ak'Gik," they chanted. Without emotion, without end, they chanted on and on, laboriously. They wore ornate Death's Head masks that hid their faces. They wore them to appear identical. Here and now, individuality did not exist. It was like a fragmented shadow wilting in the presence of a tremendous and devastating light. These humans had no souls or minds to call their own, only one purpose; to do the will of the entity that bound them.

"Great Hash'Ak'Gik, We hear you!" said the voice of a man who was more than a man. He was a Necromancer, one who divined with the aid of those who had passed from the mortal realm. Precisely how Val knew this information was beyond her, but it was not he who caught the Erebus' unwavering attention.

Upon closer observation, Val was overwhelmed by a sense of urgency when she saw the two beings who flanked the sides of the Diviner. They wore no masks and Val recognized them in an instant, despite barely knowing them at all in her childhood. Against all odds, it was Val's own parents who followed the authoritative Necromancer's footsteps deploringly, as sheep to be slaughtered.

It felt like an eternity since the Val last saw her Mother and Father and now there they were, standing at the threshold of a raised platform that hung precariously over the edge of some abysmal pit. "We tremble and we obey," they spoke in unison. Mindless drones now, they too were bereft of free will.

Valwique called out to her parents but the miasma killed her voice before it left her mouth. They wore empty eyes, glazed and clouded over. She was dust and they saw right through her. Val willed herself to move towards them but the immense pain that racked her body kept her at a pitiful crawl.

"We offer You this sacrifice upon the Altar of the World," said the Necromancer.

"The blood of our Firstborn do we sacrifice to You." The blind worshippers sang in chorus, though a new voice stood above the rest. Val did not need to look up to know that it was none other than that dreaded Eidolon. She wore the same ornate butterfly mask that covered only half her face, as always, but in her hand was a ceremonial dagger, certainly not a weapon meant for combat. Curiosity got the better of Val when she risked a glance up at the spiteful wench just in time to see her slit her parent's throats. The lacerations were made with nearly surgical precision but seeing as the ruptured vessel was the jugular, the blood that flowed out was akin to a dam bursting.

Valwique wailed like a banshee upon this macabre sight. But as before, her voice died the moment it took flight. A supressed gurgle was all that could be heard.

"May this blood nourish You for all eternity!" said the Necromancer and with that he signaled to his apprentice. Eidolon wasted no time in giving Val's parents a gentle push over the edge. They did not resist in the slightest. Throats cut, blood gouting, they plummeted into the chasm.

"Avert Your wrath from us Great God," the throng chanted in response. The miasma was growing now. Creeping steadily in all directions, it threatened to engulf the Erebus completely.

"The wrath of Hash'Ak'Gik has once more been averted. Depart now, as ever, in His service..." The Necromancer commanded his servants. These were the last words Val heard before the miasma stretched itself and covered the entirety of Val's afflicted corpse. No inch of skin was left untouched. It strangled her, threatening to crush her completely. Paralyzed once more, she was at the mercy of oblivion.

The Ninth Erebus struggled against this arcane grip as shadows invaded her body. However, she recoiled at the sound of a thousand menacing voices that came with a plethora of glowering pairs of eyes. Some were Demonic in nature, she could tell. But the others, the empty green fiery ones, they belonged to something else entirely.

The slightest movement Val made tore her skin open. Even so much as cringing was enough to rupture her flesh. All she could do was stay perfectly still and hope for it to pass. Val shivered slightly as she felt a hand gently caress her spine as she heard the words "StarSkin, I command you! Awaken!"

Sight returned to her but not in a way she expected. Now without the decadent miasma, she could see her surroundings perfectly and it was with unveiled eyes that she saw the quality in her vision that appeared to be "missing" in her surroundings. **_Color_**. She now saw the world in monochrome, in hues of black and white. Somehow, perhaps as an effect of the Baptism of Fire, Val had become color-blind.

The room she was trapped in was gave off grayish tones and from wall to wall, it was dripping with a curious liquid. It could have very well been recently painted red with the uncoagulated blood of a Vampire. But now that Val no longer saw shades of red, it might as well have been her own blood. Silver and red both looked similarly faded now in the light of the single torch that lit up the room.

Disregarding the presumed blood, she took notice of an infinitely more significant detail. All around her were chains and not just any chains. These were Vector Hooks. When inserted properly into one's flesh, the captive would feel no pain. However, they were specifically designed to stay that way. The Hooks would latch on to the flesh and any attempt to extricate them from the captive would be in vain. On the other hand, if enough force were applied, the hooks could be detached but not without ripping out chunks of flesh along with them. The price of freedom. The ultimate sacrifice.

Val looked down at her body and noted Vector Hooks were inserted at key pressure points, ensuring utmost pain should they be pulled out. Her attention then shifted to the strange device that encompassed her head. She lowered herself and allowed her pierced hands to explore the surface of this dreaded manacle.

_'Oh God! No!' _She thought to herself. '_Not The Muzzle. Anything but the Muzzle.'_

The Boaia Muzzle was one of the most heinous torture devices the Wolves had ever fabricated. It rendered any Vampire permanently incapable of feeding and they would thus be condemned to decay till insanity inevitably took hold of them but this was the least of Val's worries. The infamous nature of this device lay in the Vector Hooks located on the** _inside_** of the Muzzle, Vector Hooks that had no doubt already been inserted into her cranium. The Hooks attached to the chains on her body could easily be dealt with. However, there was no known way of disengaging the Muzzle. Even if Val could somehow open the Muzzle, she could not do so without first obliterating her own skull, splattering about the bloody entrails of her brain in the process. The muzzle was permanent.

The Ninth Erebus then decided to take her chances. If she didn't do anything, she would die anyway. Her first move was done by pure instinct. She tried turning into her mist form but to no avail. Some unknown force was keeping her changing into that form. Her shadow form also resulted in the same effect and wolf probably wouldn't fare any better. Val knew then that there was only one way to do this. Gingerly, she grasped the first Vector Hook attached to her left shoulder. She plucked it out with all her might while her shoulder consequently spewed out tendons and ligaments. Pain shot throughout the entire length of her arm before going limp. A scream welled up inside of her but she could do was clench her teeth in anguish as the damned Muzzle kept her mouth firmly clamped shut. But this greatly surprised Val for it meant that something was terribly wrong. She was not healing.

Silver blood continued to pour out as if she were human. Still, with iron resolve, Val resumed plucking out the Vector Hooks, wincing each time another was free from her flesh. She had taken off half of the number of Hooks when she felt another presence in the same cell she was in. Val did not have to look up to know that it was the despicable Eidolon.

_'You!'_ She tried to scream at the Spirit._'You killed my parents!' _But her effort was in vain. The Muzzle effectively silenced her speech, producing only a muffled "mmmrrrrgg".

Reading her thoughts, Eidolon responded. "Fool! What you saw was merely a vision of your own twisted and broken mind. Do you really think I would have even still been alive when your parents were born at the very least? No, I did not kill them. But what do you remember of your parent's deaths? You needn't speak. Just remember."

Val mentally summoned the image of her parents being slaughtered by vampires. It used to be so clear back then. Now however, it seemed so vague. The details were rather hazy and indistinct, perhaps emphasized by her color-blindness. It was like imagining herself in a watercolor painting. With the low-quality paint running on everything, the whole world looked smudged.

"Your memory isn't as clear as it once was. Isn't it?" Val heard the intruding voice of the Spirit.

In response to this, Val merely shrugged in annoyance.

"The imprint is fading then. So tell me now. Did you actually witness your parent's deaths or were you simply informed of their demise?"

Val banished the memory and looked straight up into Eidolon's piercing gaze. _'I never saw them die. I... I...'_ Val did not know how to continue her train of thought.

"Precisely!" Eidolon suddenly exclaimed without warning. "You never saw them die because you were never born. You never had parents."

_ 'I don't even know why I should trust you and why you are even telling me all this!'_

"Believe me, Child. There are only two possible options. Either you live or you die. If you live, then you will need all this information I am so generously providing. If you die, then you might as well know the truth because it won't matter in the end."

_'How do you know so much about me? And how could I have not been born?'_

"Dear Child, you've been unconscious for hours, more than enough time for me to learn from the Wolves all that is necessary about you."

_'All right then but I still don't understand what you mean by never being born?'_

"You were simply created; molded and given form like clay in a potter's hands. You were never born, thus you were never alive to begin with."

_'I detest riddles so tell me now, what does it all mean?' _

"That is a question I cannot answer. What matters is what _you_ think it means. Don't worry, you'll understand... eventually."

_'Eventually? Look here, Spirit. I don't care about the future. Only the present. Now will you answer my questions or not?' _Val tried to grab Eidolon with her free hand but only succeeded in passing right through her._  
_

"I cannot give you all the answers, Child. You have to figure some of them out on your own. I will however tell you one this, that all you need to escape from here, not to mention certain death, can all be found here in this room."

_ 'And what if I fail to escape? What if I die? What then?' _

"Don't make me laugh Child. Should you fail, there will always be others. Do you think you are the first to be subjected to all this? You're just another one of _**Their** _experiments. But if you want to escape, you'd better hurry. Already your body is decaying."

_'Decaying? What d...?'_

"Quickly now, Child. Quickly." Eidolon cut her off."You haven't much time. You have to get out of here and find a way to stop the process before you completely rot from the inside out."

In fear and desperation, Val hastily looked about the room. She did not know why she believed Eidolon's words but she would not dying here, considering she no longer had her healing capabilities. _'Something in this room... a key... a weapon... there must be something...' _she thought to herself.

"I'll give you a hint, if you are so oblivious. Under normal circumstances, one would say that the answer is at the back of your head. In this case, however, it is in fact your very dilemma."

_'To free myself, I must find a way to get this Muzzle off my head.'_

"Not necessarily. The Muzzle is especially made of a nigh indestructible material. That would be suicide. Just find a way to detach it from the wall." With that, Eidolon calmly flitted away and phased through the door, leaving Val alone in the room to figure out her method of escape.

_'That woman irks me to no end. Fine... there must be something here.'_ Val quickly scanned her surroundings and first noticed the fire from the torch. Perhaps it could be of some use. Without thinking, she quickly reached out toward the lit torch, only to be held back short by a whole foot. The chains attached to the Muzzle held her back. _'Of course, the Wolves would be fools to allow a prisoner that much leash-range.' _

A mere twelve inches of air separated her from the tantalizing flame but still she reached out in the vain hope that perhaps her coaxing would coerce the flame to reach out to her in response. Beyond all expectation, that was precisely what it did. Like a living serpent, the flame uncoiled itself from the wooden torch and lovingly stretched out toward her open arm. In boundless fear, Val retracted her right arm as though she had been bitten by the serpent of fire. When she looked up again at the fire, it had returned its grip to the wooden torch in the pretense that nothing had happened. Val couldn't believe what had just occurred. Tentatively, she reached out again to awaken the serpent. This time, she stayed her hand and allowed the fire to wind itself around her arm. To her surprise, it did not burn her. It completely left the torch and curled around itself in Val's hand.

To say the least, Val was fascinated. But that was a gross understatement. Her boundless wonder at this newfound ability kept her from moving so much as an inch for the next three minutes, three minutes of wasted time. It took her awhile to realize that the fire was beginning to fade. A few stray sparks were already falling to the ground.

With newfound resolve, she willed the fire to intensify so as to keep it from going out. As the flames grew in her bloodied hand, she thought she saw the flickering image of a most inopportune figure. Sure enough, peering through the miniscule eye holes in the Boaia Muzzle, she confirmed the figure to be the same demented demon who so recently catapulted her into the events that brought her to her current situation.

_'Gamin, I found her for you. Are you happy now?'_ She attempted to hiss at the Demon.

"Patience, My Pet, patience." Gamin spoke in a calm manner. "Those loyal to me are not so easily discarded. Even now I have gifted you with one of my properties."

_'Properties? What is it this time Gamin? The Power of the Holy Cross of Semper Fidelis? The Unholy Snake Staff of Kodor? Or perhaps the Sword of Ignus? Indulge me. I'm hoping for something that can aid me in escaping this cell.'_

"Physical weapons? Primitive instruments? Do you think me so crude? All the power you need already resides in you, My Pet. You give yourself too little credit than you think. Even now, do you not have the ability to manipulate fire?"

_'This... pyrokineses. Is it your doing?' _Val said as she closely examined the flame in her hand.

"I commanded one of my minions to infuse itself with you."

_'The Salamander?' _Val's eyes flashed momentarily. _  
_

"That is correct. Now, do I have your allegiance?"

_'Fair enough. My Soul is yours to command, Lord Gamin'_

Though she did not know it, Val's eyes began to have an inexplicable green glow around them. This eerie radiance infected the fire and so it turned green as well. The flames engulfed her body completely. The Demon's grip on her mind was too strong though she was not even vaguely aware of it.

"Good. Now, leave your cell. Eidolon is waiting for you."

_'As you wish, Lord Gamin.'_

Once Gamin's figure had disappeared from the flames, Val was alone again. She felt as though the key to her escape lay somewhere in this room but she had not the slightest idea where. Precious time was ticking away. Already, bits of her flesh were falling off. Val had to find a way out of the cell before she rotted away to a decayed husk grappling at the essence of "life."

Val thought she was alone but another voice intruded her thoughts. It sounded hoarse, almost gasping, but its intonation was very gentle.

"Poor... Creature. Why... do they hurt you... so? Why... do they use you?"

_'Who and what are you, phantasm?'_ Val snapped back at the voice as she narrowed her eyes.

"Why... I... am the Servant... the Serpent... Bekonwa. I am Legion... The Unspoken... The Accuser... The Truth... The Ninth. I am the Hylden's Erebus... The Subjugator of the Flesh... and I am you... and you are me. We are One and We are more than One."

_'And what, pray tell, do you wish to do with me now?' _

"Poor Creature. Spirit broken... so easily. Submits... to the Demon without any struggle... Defeated by your Elders... without even... fighting back. The Spirit... She uses you so terribly... terribly. You... have been wronged and have... suffered much and now you surrender... Is that it?"

_'What use is the will to live when you are not alive?'_

"Poor... poor Creature. "

_'And I don't want your pity'_ Val was on the verge of tears now. She felt so dejected, so hopeless, so used.

"What is it... you want then, Creature?"

In confusion, Val replied._ 'I don't know? To escape from this hellhole? To have Free Will? To... I don't know!' _She really didn't. _  
_

"I think... I know... what it is... you desire, Creature. You wish... to be real."

_'Real? But I am real... as real as the Vector Hooks that bind me... as real as this muzzle... as real...' _Her thoughts trailed off and she was unable to continue. _  
_

"As real... as color? Or... as real... as shadow? Or perhaps... as real... as I am? See now... Creature, you... are not real."

_'But I am real! I am real! My eyes are real! My hands are real! My blood is real! My flesh is real! My bones are real! My skin...' _

"Your skin... is no more." The Voice abruptly cut her off to make a point. Val looked down at herself and indeed, what the Voice had said was true. Most, if not all, of Val's skin had peeled off, leaving only pulsing silver flesh in wake. "See? Very soon Creature, very soon, you will be nothing."

_'I'm going to die, aren't I?' _

"Yes... Yes, you must die. But you must also... understand, Creature. You have nothing to fear... any more. You will not know... pain... and despair... It will be... a fleeting thing... Death is release. It is Reality. The more... you struggle, the more... you will suffer. I do not want you... to suffer. I want to help you, Creature." The Voice seemed quite anxious in hastening Val's imminent demise.

_'Why do you insist on calling me 'Creature'? I have a name and my name is Valwique!' _She protested. _  
_

"And that... is your dilemma, Creature. You do not have... a name... for you... do not have... a soul. You have... no identity. You... are Nothing!"

_'Perhaps you are right! Perhaps I am nothing after all and perhaps I don't really matter to any one or any thing.' _It finally seemed as though Val finally accepted her fate.

"Yes, yes, Creature. I am right. I am... always right!" The Voice responded smugly.

...

There was an awkward moment of silence.

_'So I am not real?' _Val continued._  
_

"Yes, you are... a lie. Your whole life... is a lie. Your... entire existence... was a lie. All... that you... have become, all that you could ever be... is a complete... and utter lie."

_'If I am not real, then all of my fears are not real. All of my pain is not real.' _Val was coming to a catharsis now. _  
_

"Yes, yes, Creature. Now... you understand."

_'And if my pain is not real and I have nothing to fear, then this should not hurt at all.' _With renewed strength and vigor, Val firmly grasped the remaining Vector Hooks and attempted to pull them out. Just as she told herself it would not hurt, the Hooks obeyed her mind and left only a slight prickling sensation from where they were detached.

"That is it, Creature. Liberate yourself!" goaded the Voice.

_'I am not afraid! I will be free! For I am not real!' _One by one, the Vector Hooks were disengaged and fell to the floor with a clang. _  
_

"Free! Free! We shall all be... Free!"

_'I am not real! I am not real! I am not real!' _Val repeated the mantra to herself, keeping to the beat of her extractions. _  
_

"Yes, Creature! Faster! Faster! Lest They catch you and string you high upon a glass cage for all the Their Eyes to see."

All the Vector Hooks were gone now. They lay on the floor, glaring with malice at their captive. Val was panting, exhausted from the gruesome deed. Now, there was only one thing left for her to do.

_'I am not real! And if I am not real and my pain is not real and I should not be afraid, then I shall break this muzzle from my head and shatter it into a million pieces!'  
_

"No, Creature! No! NOOOOO!!"

And so it came to pass that Valwique, the Ninth Erebus, just as all previous Erebus, succumbed to her own self-inflicted madness...


End file.
